How to Write a Compliant Light-Duty Job Description

Why a Poorly Written Light-Duty Job Description Stalls Every Claim

The scenario is frustrating and common: a modified-duty assignment is ready, the modified offer letter is drafted, and then nothing moves for a week. The attending physician's office calls to say the job description was too vague to approve. Meanwhile, the injured worker sits at home, indemnity accrues, and the claim's lost-time clock keeps running.

That delay usually traces to the same handful of errors — a description that lists job titles instead of tasks, physical demands recorded in ranges so wide they are meaningless ("lift up to 50 lbs occasionally"), or a form that does not match what the state program requires for reimbursement purposes.

A compliant light-duty job description does four things simultaneously: it gives the physician enough physical-demands specificity to approve the assignment in writing, it documents the employer's good-faith offer for claims purposes, it creates the paper trail a state reimbursement program (such as Washington's Stay at Work) requires, and it survives a carrier audit. This article walks through each structural element, explains the common errors that cause rejection, and covers what Washington employers specifically must submit to qualify for wage reimbursement.

By the end, you will have a clear checklist for building a light-duty job description that gets physician sign-off quickly and holds up under scrutiny.

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The Core Elements Every Light-Duty Job Description Must Contain

A light-duty job description is not a job posting. It is a clinical-operational document. The physician is reading it to answer one question: "Can this injured worker perform every task on this list without violating their current restrictions?" If any element is ambiguous, the answer defaults to no — or to a phone call that delays the process further.

Employer and worker identification. Include the employer's legal name, the claim number (if assigned), the worker's name, the date of injury, and the date the description was written. These fields tie the document to a specific claim and a specific assignment window.

Job title and department. Use the specific transitional title, not the pre-injury title. If the worker's regular job is "Warehouse Lead" but they are being assigned to "Quality Control Verification — Light Duty," write the transitional title. This prevents confusion during medical review and avoids any implication that the transitional role carries the same physical demands as the original position.

Assignment dates and hours. State the start date, the anticipated end date or review date, and the daily and weekly hours. Washington's Stay at Work program requires physician approval of specific hours; a day worked outside approved hours is ineligible for reimbursement. (WA L&I, Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024) Be explicit: "Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., 4 hours per day, 20 hours per week."

Task list. List each discrete task the worker will perform. Write tasks as observable actions, not role summaries. "Visually inspects assembled units for surface defects and records findings on a paper log" is a task. "Assists with quality control" is not. Aim for 5–10 task statements. Each one should be specific enough that a physician unfamiliar with your operation can picture the physical motion involved.

Physical demands matrix. This is the section physicians rely on most, and it is where most descriptions fall short. For each physical demand category, state the frequency and duration. See the table below.

Physical Demand	Definition	Required Fields
Sitting	Remaining in a seated position	Frequency (never / occasionally / frequently / continuously) + max. continuous duration
Standing	Remaining upright without walking	Frequency + max. continuous duration
Walking	Locomotion on foot	Frequency + surface type (level, uneven, stairs)
Lifting	Exerting force to raise an object	Maximum weight + frequency + height range (floor, waist, overhead)
Carrying	Moving an object while walking	Maximum weight + distance per carry
Pushing/Pulling	Horizontal force application	Maximum force (lbs) + frequency
Reaching	Extending arms, overhead or forward	Frequency + whether overhead reach is required
Gripping/Handling	Grasping, turning, pinching	Frequency + dominant vs. bilateral
Bending/Stooping	Flexion at the waist below 90°	Frequency
Kneeling/Crouching	Lowering body by bending knee	Frequency
Climbing	Stairs, ladders, platforms	Whether required at all
Driving	Operating a motor vehicle	Whether required at all

Use consistent frequency language across every row. A common convention: never (0%), occasionally (1–33% of the workday), frequently (34–66%), continuously (67–100%). Whatever convention you use, define it once at the top of the matrix and apply it consistently.

Environmental conditions. Note relevant conditions: indoor/outdoor, temperature extremes, noise level, exposure to vibration, wet or slippery surfaces. Restrictions sometimes include environmental components — a worker with a hand injury may have a restriction against prolonged vibration exposure, for example.

Physician signature block. The attending provider must approve the transitional job description in writing before the worker begins the assignment. (WA L&I, Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024) The signature block must include the provider's name, credential, signature, and the date of approval. A fax or secure email confirmation is typically acceptable, but retain the original for the claim file. Without this approval, no light-duty day worked is reimbursable under Washington's Stay at Work program, and the offer's legal standing under other state programs may also be compromised.

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Aligning the Description to the Worker's Current Restrictions

The restriction document — typically the attending physician's Activity Prescription Form (APF) or an equivalent state form — is the governing input. Your job description must fit inside every boundary that document sets. It does not need to use all available capacity; it needs to stay within limits.

Work through the restrictions methodically before you draft:

1. List every current restriction explicitly. If the APF says "no lifting over 10 lbs," "no overhead reach with right arm," and "seated work only for first 2 hours," those are hard ceilings.
2. Map each task to the restriction set. For each proposed task, confirm it does not require a motion or force the restriction prohibits. If a task cannot be modified to fit, remove it.
3. Check the hours. If the physician has approved 4 hours per day, the job description states 4 hours per day — not "up to 4 hours" or "4–6 hours depending on operational need." Ambiguity in hours creates exactly the kind of documentation gap that disqualifies a day from reimbursement.
4. Resolve conflicts between tasks and environmental conditions. A seated inspection task described accurately may still be problematic if the inspection area involves standing water or vibrating equipment nearby. Surface the conflict and address it before submission.
5. Match what you describe to what actually exists on the floor. A job description that describes a role the facility cannot actually provide is not a good-faith offer. Document the workstation, the supervisor of record, and the location within the facility. If circumstances change and the assignment must be modified, issue a revised description and return it to the physician for re-approval before the worker's next shift.

For a deeper look at how task banks and occupational data support this process, see the transitional duty task bank guide and the explanation of how O*NET data supports duty matching.

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Washington Employer Requirements: State-Form Specifics

Washington's Stay at Work program has the most detailed documentation requirements of any state wage-reimbursement program currently operating, and it is worth addressing specifically.

To qualify for reimbursement — up to 50% of base wages, for up to 120 days worked, with a maximum of $25,000 per claim for injuries on or after January 1, 2025 — the employer must submit a light-duty job description on the form Washington L&I requires, with the attending provider's written approval attached. (AGC of Washington, 2025; WA L&I, Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024)

Always use the current form version. Washington L&I updates its forms periodically, and submitting an outdated version creates a processing delay or rejection. Confirm the current Employer's Job Description form number and version date directly at the WA L&I Stay at Work program page before submitting — the verified-data library does not lock in a specific form number because it changes. Bookmarking the program page directly is more reliable than saving a local copy of the form.

Critical documentation rules for Washington:

• Submit the job description to the attending provider before the assignment begins. L&I instructs employers to submit the light-duty job description to the provider as early as possible. (WA L&I, Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024) Submitting after the worker has already started does not automatically disqualify the claim, but it reduces the margin for error if there is any dispute about whether the provider's approval was in place.
• A partial day counts as one reimbursable day. If the worker is approved for 4 hours and works 3.5, that day still counts as one of the 120 reimbursable days. (WA L&I, Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024)
• A day worked outside the approved job description or approved hours is ineligible. If the physician approved 4 hours per day and the worker clocks 6 hours on one shift — even with the worker's agreement — that day does not count toward reimbursement. (ERNwest, 2025) The job description is not a ceiling the employer can exceed operationally; it is the boundary of the reimbursable assignment.
• The reimbursement application must be submitted within one year after the light-duty work is done. Missing this window forfeits the reimbursement regardless of how complete the documentation is. (WA L&I, 2025) Tracking the filing deadline from day one of the assignment is part of managing the claim.

For a broader view of how WA Stay at Work documentation fits into a full return-to-work case file, see the return-to-work case management guide.

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Common Errors That Cause Physician Rejection or Reimbursement Denial

Understanding why descriptions fail makes it easier to build ones that don't.

Vague frequency language. "Occasional lifting" means nothing without a definition. Physicians need a percentage of the workday or a standard convention. Define your terms.

Missing weight and height specifics for lifting. "Light lifting" is not a physical demands statement. "Lifting up to 10 lbs from waist height to a conveyor belt at waist height, occasionally (less than 33% of the shift)" is.

Using the pre-injury job description as the base. The pre-injury job description documents the essential functions of the regular role — it is not a light-duty document. Starting from it and removing tasks often leaves in demands (e.g., "other duties as assigned," "may occasionally lift up to 75 lbs") that will trigger rejection. Build the light-duty description from scratch based on the restriction set and the available tasks. For guidance on essential functions documentation for the regular role, see the job demands and essential functions guide.

Omitting the physician signature block. A job description without a completed physician approval is not a compliant light-duty offer under state wage-reimbursement program rules. Build the signature block into every template.

Failing to version-control revisions. Restrictions frequently change as the worker progresses through recovery. Each revision to the job description must be dated, re-approved in writing by the physician, and filed in the claim record. An undated revision with no re-approval creates an audit gap. Number your document versions and log the revision date in the file.

Conflating the job description with the offer letter. The modified duty offer letter conveys the terms of employment and invites the worker to accept or decline. The job description is an attachment to the offer letter — a clinical document describing the physical demands. They serve different purposes and should be separate documents. For offer letter construction, see the modified duty offer letter guide.

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Building a Repeatable Process Around the Light-Duty Job Description

A single well-built job description solves one claim. A library of pre-drafted, physician-reviewed descriptions organized by department and restriction type solves every claim.

The investment is substantial upfront — surveying each department's available transitional tasks, writing descriptions at the task level, and getting baseline physician or occupational medicine review of the physical demands language — but it compresses the most time-consuming part of the RTW process (description drafting and medical approval) from days to hours for subsequent claims.

A practical library structure:

• Organize by restriction category, not by job title. A "no-overhead-reach, sedentary" description can serve an injured assembly-line worker, a warehouse picker, and a maintenance technician assigned to the same light-duty station. Physical demand profiles, not roles, are the organizing logic.
• Document the approval date for each template. If you are in Washington, a template that has been reviewed by an occupational medicine provider and dated is not a substitute for per-claim physician approval — but it gives the attending provider something concrete to review and sign off on quickly, rather than starting from a blank form.
• Build in a version-control convention. Date every template. When restrictions categories change (new equipment, workstation reconfiguration), update the template and document the revision.

Pre-built, state-form-ready templates organized around physical restriction profiles are available in the Modified Duty Job Description Library — structured to reduce drafting time and include the physical demands matrix and physician signature block required for state reimbursement programs.

For context on how the job description connects to the broader case record and document trail, see the return-to-work case management guide.