Want to provide your injured employee with all their legal entitlements? Here, thanks to the research to emerge from a nurses return to work hospital project (an Australian Nursing Federation – Victorian branch project), are ten employer commandments to follow, in the form of the following entitlements of the injured:

1. To be provided with safe, meaningful and durable RTW duties. Allow the injured worker to be involved in discussions about the duties to be undertaken upon first returning to work. As well as increasing a self of control over the recovery process, the chances of finding work for the employee that is meaningful and challenging are better – this is the sort of work likely to be more motivating for workers on the job and during recovery.
2. To seek representation (eg legal, union). Encourage your employee to gain all the support and advice they need to make them feel informed and confident about the process they are experiencing. Your encouragement will foster trust.
3. To be provided a choice of three occupational rehabilitation providers. With choice can come a sense of control over one’s own recovery and return to work. Some injured workers may also feel more comfortable with a rehabilitation provider of their choosing, perhaps one recommended by a friend, rather than only having the option of a work approved or chosen provider.
4. To be provided, for a period of 52 weeks, a pre-injury role or equivalent with pre-injury employer. It is actually an employer’s obligation to accommodate as much as possible to return to work of an injured employee.
5. Suitable employment which includes the same or equivalent position. Don’t ask your employee to do photocopying all day until their back is better – try to be a little more inventive. The more time you put into equivalent (or as close to as possible) duties, the more work and respect your employee will put in.
6. To be treated fairly and in a non-discriminatory manner. Let’s hope this one’s self-explanatory. Every worker has this right, and every employer the obligation to respect it.
7. Actively participate in development, monitoring and review of rehab and RTW plan. As mentioned at point one, the plans formulated with the input of the injured worker are likely to be the ones that the worker will adhere to most because they are appropriate and agreed upon.
8. To have communicated the roles, rights and responsibilities for rehab and RTW. An injured worker who understands their role and responsibility often equates to a greater sense of self-efficacy in the worker. Self-efficacy is one of the key factors in a speedy and successful return to work.
9. To request and receive occupational rehab services, including aids and equipment. Sometimes it can be as simple as needing a car park closer to work for a while – other times it might be high-tech equipment and/or services; when an injured worker is provided with the tools they need to get to work everybody wins. How can an employer find out what the worker needs? Ask. And workers, where they feel comfortable enough to, should also speak up.
10. To choose medical practitioner and allied health professionals, and where not happy with their services to change providers. A simple but important entitlement. An injured person should feel comfortable with their medical practitioner – even just the knowledge of having the option to find the right practitioner may help keep a successful return to work on track.