Suitable duties
Suitable duties are work tasks an injured or ill worker can do during recovery, matched to their current medical capacity. Employers must offer suitable duties so far as is reasonably practicable; they are the primary mechanism by which a graduated return-to-work occurs.
Legal context
Suitable duties match the worker's current functional capacity (per the medical certificate of capacity) to available tasks. A medical certificate may restrict hours per day, days per week, lifting weights, postural demands, use of specific equipment, or environmental exposures. The employer's task is to identify available work within those restrictions — which may be the worker's pre-injury job with modifications, a different job, or a hybrid. Suitable duties are reviewed as the worker's capacity changes. Failure to provide suitable duties when reasonably practicable can attract penalties under state workers' compensation legislation and may affect insurance premiums.
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Related terms
Return to work
Return-to-work is the structured pathway by which an injured or ill worker resumes work, typically through staged suitable duties under a written RTW plan. Each Australian state has its own statutory scheme (e.g. NSW SIRA, Vic WorkSafe, Qld WorkCover) with employer obligations including timelines, designated coordinators and plan reviews.
Fit for work
Fit for work means a worker is in a physical and mental state to do their work safely — free from impairment by fatigue, alcohol, drugs, illness or injury. The fitness-for-work duty sits on both the PCBU (to provide a system) and the worker (to declare).
Platform pillars
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47 WHS and HSWA terms with legal context, FAQs and regulator references.