Human Resource Blog

Light Duty in Ohio

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Is an employer obligated to put an employee on light duty in Ohio, if no appropriate work is available?

Not at all. Employers are not obligated to create light duty work. A company’s policy and its past practices will determine how it addresses the issue of light duty.

The U.S. Department of Labor has created some regulations on the matter, based on a number of court cases.

Companies must be fair, consistent, and nondiscriminatory when applying a light duty policy beyond that, it is up to the employer’s discretion.

Some firms have instituted policies allowing for light duty. However, there may be times when there is only enough light duty work for 3 employees, but 4 qualify. In that case, the company need not hire all 4. The fourth will have to wait until more light duty work is available or until he or she is ready to return to regular work.

A company may have some positions that adapt better to light duty work than others. A secretarial job, which usually involves desk work, would lend itself readily to modification. A job requiring a warehouse worker to lift and move 50-pound containers would not. Decisions about light duty can be made based on adaptability.

There are some firms that simply do not allow for light duty work. It stems from a concern that an injured employee could become injured further.

In all these cases, if the policy is applied fairly and consistently, it is certainly within the law.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it a violation to discriminate in the workplace based on race, color, religion, national origin and so forth. Providing light duty to one ethnic group and denying it to another would be deemed discriminatory and illegal.

The ADA, or Americans with Disabilities Act, requires employers to make reasonable accommodations to insure that temporarily or permanently disabled workers be allowed to contribute their skills to the workplace. If a disabled worker required a stool to sit down on rather than standing up, that would be reasonable. Hiring a second employee to do the bulk of the work would not be reasonable. JH