There is no maximum time limit on light duties in Queensland.
The phrase appears nowhere in the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), and there is nothing in it which caps how long modified work can go on for.
Light duties last as long as your suitable duties plan says they should, and that plan is written based on your doctor's work capacity certificate and reviewed as you recover.
Quick answer
- "Light duties" is workplace shorthand. The term used in the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) is suitable duties
- Neither the Act nor the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2025 (Qld) sets a maximum period for them
- It’s your compensation which has a time limit, not your duties
- The suitable duties must match the restrictions set out on your work capacity certificate
- If you refuse to take part in said duties without a reasonable excuse, your insurer can suspend your payments
This guide covers what light duties are considered to be under Queensland law; who writes the plan; the things that really limit how long they run; what happens to your pay; and what you should do when you’re given duties that aren’t suitable.
Is there a legal time limit on light duties? No, and there’s nothing in the Act, the Regulation or the Regulator's scheme directions that sets one. Your suitable duties plan decides what duties are considered suitable, and it’s built from your doctor's work capacity certificate and updated at the review dates written into it.
What has a deadline attached? Your weekly compensation, which stops when the first of three events happen: your incapacity ends, you have had 5 years of weekly payments or you reach the maximum statutory amount.
Next best action: look at your current work capacity certificate and compare the restrictions on it against what you are actually being asked to do this week.
Understanding light duties in Queensland
What "light duties" means
Light duties are modified work tasks you do instead of your normal job while you recover from an injury or illness. It’s a phrase used by workplaces and doctors, it is not a legal term and it doesn’t appear anywhere in the legislation.
The Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) refers to them as suitable duties and defines them as work duties you are suited to, judged against seven matters:
- The nature of your incapacity and your pre-injury employment
- Relevant medical information
- Your rehabilitation and return to work plan
- Your employer's workplace rehabilitation policy and procedures
- Your age, education, skills and work experience
- Where duties are available somewhere else, whether it is reasonable to expect you to attend that other location
- Any other relevant matters
The last of those is a catch-all, and there are two key things about the list worth paying attention to.
There is no time element anywhere in the Act, which means suitability is about fit rather than duration. In addition, because skills and experience are part of the test, duties far below your skill level can be unsuitable even if they are physically easy.
Who writes the plan, and who signs it
Your suitable duties program is the document which sets out the tasks you can perform, the restrictions you’re under and the dates the restrictions remain in effect for.
The Act uses the word "program," while WorkCover Queensland calls it a “suitable duties plan.” In practice they are the same thing.
Your rehabilitation and return to work plan is something different, and must be put in place by your insurer within 10 business days of your claim being allowed. It must also be reviewed and modified as new information comes to light.
The return to work plan sets out the objectives for your recovery, and the suitable duties program sits inside it and sets out the actual tasks you are able to perform. WorkCover Queensland calls the wider plan your “My Recovery Plan.”
WorkCover Queensland's guidance is that the plan lists the work you are able to do safely, how long you will adhere to the plan, how the tasks change as you recover and the review dates. Everyone involved must sign it: you, your employer, your coordinator and your doctor.
The plan is built from your work capacity certificate, the detailed medical certificate that’s only used for workers' compensation claims. It sets out what you can do and what limits apply during your recovery.
If your workplace has a rehabilitation and return to work coordinator, they will consult with you and your employer to develop a suitable program for you. The coordinator must also ensure the program is consistent with your current medical certificate or report.
Not every employer has a rehabilitation and return to work coordinator, as they’re only required in cases where the employer's Queensland wages for the preceding financial year were more than 2,600 times Queensland Ordinary Time Earnings (QOTE) in a high risk industry, or more than 5,200 times QOTE for any other.
For smaller businesses, your insurer or a workplace rehabilitation provider will do this instead, and your duties will be set out in the same way.
What actually runs on a clock
Nothing limits the duties, but there are several things which limit the claim around them. Keeping the two separate is the most useful thing for understanding light duties.
| What people assume has a deadline | What Queensland law actually says |
|---|---|
| How long you can stay on light duties | No limit. Nothing in the Act, the Regulation or the Regulator's scheme directions puts a limit on this. Duration is set out in your plan and revised as your capacity changes. |
| How long your employer must hold your job | Your employer must not dismiss you solely or mainly because you are unfit for a position because of an injury within 12 months of it happening. Other grounds for dismissal are unaffected. |
| How long weekly payments last | They stop once the first of three events happen: your incapacity ends, you have had 5 years of weekly payments, or compensation reaches the maximum statutory amount, which for weekly payments is 216.15 times QOTE. |
| What you are paid over time | The rate steps down over time. For total incapacity, it is the greater of 85% of your normal weekly earnings and either your award rate or 80% of QOTE for the first 26 weeks, then the greater of 75% of normal weekly earnings and 70% of QOTE until 2 years. |
This can put a worker on light duties in an uncomfortable position because the duties they’re assigned are open-ended but the money behind them is not.
The 5-year limit on WorkCover payments is the outer boundary, although most claims close well before it.
Common questions about light duties
How long can I be on light duties at work?
For as long as your plan says. There is no legal maximum, and the duties change every time your work capacity certificate changes, which is usually every few weeks. Your plan carries review dates for this reason.
Does WorkCover still pay me while I'm on light duties?
Yes, if you are earning less than you did before the injury. This is called partial incapacity. The top-up is a proportion not a flat rate.
The insurer calculates the maximum weekly compensation you would have received if you were completely unable to work, then pays that amount scaled by the share of your normal weekly earnings you have lost.
In plain terms, if you’re earning 60% of your pre-injury wage during light duties, you have lost 40%. This means you’ll receive roughly 40% of the full weekly compensation figure. The payment can never exceed what you would have received for total incapacity, and when you return to full hours at full pay, the loss is zero and weekly payments end.
If your insurer asks you in writing for your earnings during partial incapacity, you must answer within 10 business days, or it can suspend your payments until you do so.
What if my employer says there are no light duties available?
They have to put that to the insurer in writing, and the insurer is not obligated to accept it. An employer who forms the opinion that a suitable duties program is not practicable must give the insurer a written notice stating the evidence it’s relying on.
Section 228(3) is the part most people never hear about. Insurers must consider the evidence and form their own opinion. If it isn’t satisfied with what it finds, it must give the employer its reasons and a chance to respond, which means an employer's say-so starts the process rather than ending it.
If suitable duties genuinely cannot be provided, WorkCover Queensland's Recover at Work program can place you with a host employer who is able to provide them. Your weekly compensation payments will continue throughout, and the placement runs under a signed host deed. According to WorkCover, a placement can be as short as 3 weeks, but normally goes on for longer.
Can I refuse light duties if I think they will make my injury worse?
Refusing outright is risky, but disagreeing on medical grounds isn’t the same thing. If you fail or refuse to participate without a reasonable excuse, the insurer can give you written notice suspending your compensation until you participate again.
WorkCover Queensland puts it plainly: if your doctor says you can work and you choose not to, your benefits may be affected.
The best option is to go back to the doctor who signed your certificate and explain to them what you are actually being asked to do. If the certificate changes, the plan has to change with it. If the insurer does decide to suspend your payments, the decision is reviewable.
Can I be sacked while I'm on light duties?
Not within the first 12 months, if the reason is your injury. Section 232B says that within 12 months of you sustaining an injury, your employer must not dismiss you solely or mainly because you are not fit for employment in a position because of the injury. The maximum penalty for doing so is 500 penalty units.
Read that carefully and remember it because it protects you from one specific reason for dismissal, for one specific period.
This isn’t a right to 12 months' employment, and it doesn’t apply to redundancy, misconduct or any other ground. If you are dismissed on that basis, you can apply to your employer for reinstatement to your former position within 12 months after the injury, with a doctor's certificate saying you are fit for it.
If the duties offered are not genuinely suitable
Work through these points in order. Each step is cheaper and faster than the one after it.
- Get your work capacity certificate and read it. Compare the restrictions on it against the tasks you are actually doing. Only a doctor, a nurse practitioner for a minor injury, or a dentist for an oral injury can complete one. WorkCover Queensland does not accept certificates from physiotherapists or psychologists.
- Tell your coordinator, in writing. Section 148(c)(ii) of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2025 (Qld) makes it your coordinator's job to ensure the program stays consistent with your current medical certificate or report. A mismatch is the thing that duty exists to catch, and a short email will create the record.
- Go back to your treating doctor. The certificate is the document that changes things, so ask for the restrictions to be written specifically enough that they cannot be worked around. Tasks should be named rather than the body part.
- Raise it with your claim contact at the insurer. Section 220 obliges the insurer to take all reasonable steps to secure your return to suitable duties, with a maximum penalty of 1,000 penalty units.
- Apply to the Workers' Compensation Regulator for a review. A decision to suspend, terminate, increase or decrease your payments is reviewable (s 540(1)(a)(ix) and (ixa), or s 540(1)(b) if your employer is a self-insurer). You have 3 months from receiving the written decision and reasons to apply (s 542(1)), and it is free. The Regulator must decide within 25 business days (s 545(1)) and notify you within 10 business days (s 546(1)). You can ask once for more time, which may be allowed if special circumstances exist (s 542(2) and (3)).
- Appeal to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. If the review goes against you, you have 20 business days from receiving notice of the decision to appeal (s 550(1)(a)).
Red flags while you are on light duties
- Tasks added informally by a supervisor that are not on your plan
- Duties that quietly drift back towards your pre-injury role, hour by hour
- A plan you have never signed, or one your doctor has not seen
- Being told the plan cannot change until the next review date, when your symptoms have changed
- Being told there are no suitable duties, with nothing in writing to the insurer
- Hours cut without your weekly compensation being adjusted to match the lost earnings
Common mistakes to avoid:
- Treating the work capacity certificate as paperwork; it controls what you can lawfully be asked to do
- Raising problems only in conversation, so nothing exists on the file later
- Missing the 3-month window to apply for a review, or the 20-business-day window to appeal
Legal framework
The Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld) is the governing legislation, and the sections that matter here are cited throughout this guide. The full text is on the Queensland legislation website.
The Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Regulation 2025 (Qld) covers what a coordinator does (s 148) and which employers must appoint one (s 149). It replaced the 2014 Regulation, which is no longer in force, so any guidance still citing the 2014 Regulation is out of date.
What this means for you: the obligations run in three directions at once. Your employer must provide the duties where it reasonably can, your insurer must take all reasonable steps to secure your return to them and you must take part. When the arrangement goes wrong, working out which of those three is failing tells you who to raise it with.
When to get legal advice
It's always a good idea to seek advice at the earliest opportunity, especially if:
- Your payments have been suspended or terminated over a dispute about duties
- Your employer says no suitable duties are available and you doubt that is true
- The duties are aggravating your injury and the plan has not changed after you raised it
- You have been dismissed, or pushed towards resigning, while on modified duties
- Your injury is not improving and permanent impairment is being discussed
- Someone else's negligence caused the injury, which may open a separate claim run by a lawyer alongside your statutory workplace injury claim
Why early advice matters here: the deadlines run from a letter, not from the day the problem started. The 3-month review window and 20-business-day appeal window will both pass quickly when you are unwell and still turning up to work.
To see how a modified return fits into the wider scheme, read our guide to returning to work on suitable duties in Queensland.
Key takeaways
Remember these essential points:
- No law caps how long light duties can last. The limits in the scheme apply to your compensation, not to your duties.
- The work capacity certificate controls everything. Your duties must match it, and where a coordinator is appointed, they must keep the program consistent with it.
- A partial return does not mean losing your top-up. Section 163 pays a share of the full weekly compensation figure in proportion to the earnings you have lost.
- "No suitable duties available" is a claim your employer must evidence in writing, and the insurer has to form its own view on it.
- Two deadlines matter most: 3 months to apply to the Workers' Compensation Regulator for a review, and 20 business days to appeal a review decision to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.
Get help now
If you are on light duties and the arrangement is not working, we can tell you whether there is something worth acting on. We will ask what your certificate says, what you are actually being asked to do, and what the insurer has decided, then do our best to help you.
Call 1800 960 482 or enquire online. We operate under a No Win, No Fee, No Catch® promise.
You can also use the form below to request a free claim check.
