Services / Work Capacity Certificates & Suitable Duties

Work Capacity Certificates & Suitable Duties: Anchored to the Real Job

Phoenix’s Occupational and Environmental Physicians (OEPs) and occupationally trained doctors assess what an injured worker can safely do and issue a clear work capacity certificate, then review the suitable duties your workplace proposes against it. Delivered by telehealth, Australia-wide.

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How It Works
Who We Help

A clinical opinion the worker, the supervisor and the insurer can all act on

A work capacity certificate only works if everyone who relies on it can use it. Our doctors focus on the individual worker’s capacity and communicate it clearly to the worker and the employer, with the goal of maintaining function and contact with the workplace, consistent with the RACP’s Health Benefits of Good Work initiative.

Employers

Specialist input that turns an often poorly completed certificate into a clear one: a real diagnosis, defined restrictions, capacity, hours and review dates your RTW coordinator can build suitable duties on.

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Workers

Restrictions built around what you actually do, not a job-title category. A review of duties you and your supervisor can both follow, with a clear path back to your pre-injury role.

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Also supporting

Insurers: occupational medicine opinions on stalled or unclear capacity.

General Practitioners: shared case management where the role demands more than a generalist certificate. We write back to the referring GP on formal referral.

RTW coordinators: the clear certificate that anchors the suitable-duties plan they build and run.

What it is

A work capacity certificate and a suitable duties plan are two different things

From an Occ Med perspective, most confusion about suitable duties comes from collapsing two separate questions into one. “Fit for light duties” tries to be the medical answer and the workplace answer at once, and ends up being neither.

A work capacity certificate is the medical opinion on what a worker can safely do after injury or illness: their current capacity, the specific restrictions that apply, and how long those restrictions hold. Every doctor completes the same certificate for each state scheme. The difference is how well it is completed: a clear diagnosis rather than a symptom, and a focus on what the worker can do.

A suitable duties plan answers the workplace question. The employer or RTW coordinator, often with an occupational therapist or physiotherapist, takes that capacity and names the actual tasks the worker will perform, on which hours, within their specific role. Phoenix doctors review and approve that plan against the certificate. We do not write it.

For employers using our early intervention telemedicine, every consultation also produces a Phoenix Injury Management Report, released with the worker’s consent. It gives context a certificate cannot: how the injury came about, the doctor’s opinion, and workplace factors worth acting on. A WorkCover certificate of capacity is issued only if the worker lodges a claim.

Capabilities

What a usable suitable duties plan must contain

Creating the plan is the employer’s responsibility. A clear certificate from Phoenix gives the RTW coordinator what they need to build one. A plan that works covers each of the following.

Inherent requirements of the role

The real physical, cognitive and environmental demands of the job, not a generic job description. A forklift operator and a packer with the same back injury need different plans.

Current work capacity

Fit, unfit, or fit with restrictions, drawn from the work capacity certificate.

Physical restrictions

Lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, standing and reach limits defined by quantity, frequency and duration, not “light duties.”

Cognitive and psychological limits

Concentration, supervision needs, or exposure to specific triggers, where the injury or role makes them relevant.

Named suitable duties

Actual tasks the worker will perform, chosen by the employer from what the workplace can offer. “Bench-level assembly, seated, with two 10-minute breaks per hour” is suitable duties. “Modified duties” is not.

Tasks to avoid

The specific duties the worker should not yet perform, stated plainly so there is no ambiguity on the floor.

Graduated hours

A written progression from current hours back to pre-injury hours, with milestones, where a staged return applies.

Workplace adjustments

Equipment, seating, task rotation or environmental changes that make the duties safe to perform.

Review milestones

A scheduled date for the next review of capacity and duties, not “review as required.”

Fit with the certificate of capacity

Restrictions that align with the worker’s current certificate, so the medical and workplace documents agree.

Medical review

The Phoenix doctor reviews the proposed duties against the certificate and confirms they are safe for the worker before the plan starts.

Why Phoenix

Where occupational medicine input changes the certificate

For uncomplicated injuries with an obvious duties match, a GP certificate is the right tool. For everything more complex, a certificate completed by an OEP or occupationally trained doctor is what makes the suitable-duties plan workable.

01 / OEP-LED
Doctors trained in Occupational Medicine

Certificates are completed by Occupational and Environmental Physicians (OEPs) and occupationally trained doctors who understand both the medicine and the demands the role places on the worker, physical and cognitive.

02 / ROLE-SPECIFIC
Restrictions anchored to the real job

A treating GP often issues restrictions from the worker’s own description of their role, especially at the first consult. Our doctors anchor restrictions to the requirements of the actual position, so the suitable duties the employer proposes translate to the floor.

03 / PRACTICAL
Duties reviewed, not rubber-stamped

Neither GPs nor OEPs write suitable duties plans. The employer, or an OT or physiotherapist working for them, does. What our doctors add is a careful review: are the proposed duties safe against the certificate, and do they keep the worker connected to work rather than signed off for longer than is ideal.

04 / RAPID
Same- or next-day availability

Capacity questions lose value with every day they sit unanswered. Phoenix holds capacity for new-injury and review consultations, typically within one business day.

05 / SECURE
ISO 27001-certified information systems

Phoenix Occupational Medicine holds ISO 27001 Information Security Management System certification. Worker health information is managed in a certified information security environment, with consent capture and documented appropriateness checks.

06 / NATIONAL
Capacity reviews anywhere in Australia

Phoenix’s RTW and Acute Telemedicine services are delivered by telehealth. Distance from a clinic is not a barrier to a clear capacity review.

Discover Our Difference

The Process

How Phoenix’s certificate supports a suitable duties plan

Three steps from request to a certificate and report the workplace can build on. Most cases complete within one to two business days.

01
Request

Employer, RTW coordinator or worker contacts Phoenix with the case details and any current certificate. We confirm an agreement of service with the employer and triage the request. GPs refer through a separate pathway.

02
Consult

A telehealth consultation with the worker that reviews the medical evidence, clinical history, the individual’s health status and the actual demands of the role. Capacity and restrictions are framed against the job and the person, not a job-title category.

03
Report

A Phoenix Injury Management Report and, if appropriate, a WorkCover certificate of capacity, issued electronically at the end of the consultation: diagnosis, restrictions, named capacity to perform certain tasks, graduated hours and a review date. The RTW coordinator builds the suitable duties plan on it, and the doctor reviews and approves the plan.

Suitability

When occupational medicine input changes the certificate, and when a GP certificate is enough

Where Phoenix input adds value
  • Complex injuries: multiple body parts, comorbidities, secondary psychological injury
  • Technically demanding or safety-critical roles where generic restrictions do not translate
  • Stalled recovery where the worker is not progressing as expected
  • Non-work-related conditions affecting work fitness, such as surgical recovery before return
  • Workplaces where workers keep being signed off rather than kept at productive modified work
Where a GP certificate is enough
  • Uncomplicated soft-tissue injuries with a clear diagnosis
  • A straightforward suitable-duties match, where the role is generic and the restrictions translate
  • Single body part, single condition, expected to resolve within weeks
  • Recovery is on track and the certificate is updated as the worker improves

Where It Sits

The certificate inside Phoenix’s wider injury program

A review of work capacity is part of nearly every Phoenix telemedicine consultation, from the time of injury through return to work.

One team across acute consult and return to work

The Phoenix doctor who assesses capacity at the time of injury can often be the same doctor who saw the worker at acute consult and supports the return-to-work plan. Medical context, role understanding and case history follow the worker, instead of being lost between providers.

See Phoenix’s full Workplace Injury Management program

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TEAM ACROSS THE CASE

FAQs

Common questions about work capacity certificates and suitable duties

Key takeaways
  • A work capacity certificate contains the medical decision about what a worker can do. A Phoenix Injury Management Report adds the context that supports return to work, including site-specific hazards. A suitable duties plan is the workplace plan the employer builds on them.
  • A usable plan defines restrictions by quantity, frequency and duration, names actual suitable duties, sets graduated hours where needed, and fixes a review date.
  • Doctors approve suitable duties, they do not write them. The common failure is a certificate completed without knowledge of the actual role, which defaults to generic restrictions or unnecessary time off.
  • A GP certificate is the right tool for uncomplicated injuries with a clear duties match. Occupational medicine input belongs in complex, stalled or safety-critical cases.
  • Phoenix delivers injury management reports and work capacity certificates by telehealth, with same- or next-day availability across Australia.
  • Phoenix Occupational Medicine holds ISO 27001 information system certification for the handling of worker health information.

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