Table 6.4: Prescribed time periods to establish a return to work plan | Safe Work Australia

Contact | Subscribe | Media centre

	3-point contact	Time to develop a return to work plan/personal injury plan
NSW	The insurer must initiate action under the insurer’s injury management program within 3 working days and must contact the worker, employer and worker’s treating doctor. Employers must comply with their obligations under the insurer’s injury management program. (Does not apply if the employer is a self-insurer)	Insurer: 3 working days for workers with a significant injury. 20 days if an injury is identified as likely to be a significant injury Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 s43(4). Employer: A return to work plan is developed for each injured worker returning to work. Guidelines for workplace return to work programs.
Vic	N/A	Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 s104 — Plan return to work — see more details under ‘Return to Work Plans’: An employer must, to the extent that it is reasonable to do so, plan the return to work of a worker from the date on which the employer knows or ought reasonably to have known of the worker’s incapacity for work, whichever is the earlier date. Under s104(4), an employer knows or ought reasonably to have known of the incapacity for work from the beginning of the employment obligation period under s103 — either the date a medical certificate or claim for compensation for weekly payments is received by the employer or the employer is notified of receipt of these documents by the insurer, whichever is the earliest.
Qld	N/A	An insurer must have a rehabilitation and return to work plan in place within 10 business days after a worker’s application for compensation is allowed — Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 s221(2)
WA	N/A	s160: As soon as practicable after the earliest of the following: the day on which the worker’s treating medical practitioner issues a certificate of capacity to the effect that the worker is partially incapacitated for work; the day on which the worker’s treating medical practitioner advises the employer in writing that a return to work program should be established for the worker; the day on which, in proceedings under Part 6, an arbitrator determines, or the parties agree, that the worker has suffered an injury in respect of which compensation is payable and is partially incapacitated for work.
SA	N/A	Where it appears that a worker is (or is likely) to be incapacitated for work by a work injury for more than 4 weeks, a recovery/return to work plan must be prepared — Return to Work Act 2014 s25. A plan can also be prepared under other circumstances [see s25(2)].
Tas	An injury management coordinator to ensure that contact is made with the worker, the employer and the primary treating medical practitioner as soon as practicable after a worker (suffering a significant injury) is assigned to the injury management coordinator — Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 s143C(2)(a).	If a worker suffers a significant injury, the employer must ensure that any return-to-work plan, or injury management plan, that is required under the employer’s approved injury management program to be prepared in relation to a worker who has suffered a significant injury, is prepared within the period specified in that program — s143E(1).
ACT	N/A	3 business days for significant injury — Workers Compensation Act 1951 s96. When suspected that injury is significant (7 days) — s97.
NT	N/A	No time specified for plan but employer has 7 days after becoming aware that the worker’s total or partial incapacity will exceed 28 days to give a proposal in writing to the worker for a return to work plan — Return to Work Act 1986 s75A(1)(c)
Comcare	N/A	N/A
Seacare	N/A	N/A
DVA	N/A	N/A
NZ	N/A	Accident Compensation Act 2001 s75 Within 13 weeks after the Corporation accepts the claimant’s claim, the Corporation must determine whether the claimant is likely to need social or vocational rehabilitation after the 13 weeks have ended. If so, the Corporation must prepare an individual rehabilitation plan in consultation with the claimant.