RTW: Everybody’s doing it

…or at least for the majority of cases.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), nearly "60% of the most severe cases in private industry include at least some days of job transfer or restricted work, with the remainder resulting exclusively in days away from work." (2013, p. 31). So what's the big deal? Well, in 1970, less than 5% of severe cases involved job transfer. We've come a long way, baby.

In 1985, only 8.6% of all lost-workday cases involved restricted work (2013, p. 32). In 2001, this number rose to 39.9% (2013, p.32). That is good news! BLS classifies restricted work cases as cases where the injured worker returns to work with restrictions, without losing time from work. In other words, injured workers return to modified duty without losing more than a day of work. 

Does business size matter?
According to the BLS: somewhat. Their research has found that establishments increased in size, the proportion of restricted work days also increased, measured at years 1985, 2001, and 2009, until employer size reaches about 1,000 or more employees where it levels out and drops off slightly.
While peer pressure is typically not a good basis for doing something, particularly when it involves important business decisions and employees, it's clearly not just us who believe RTW is beneficial.

Exciting news!
Well, I find it exciting. In their future surveys, the BLS plans to capture more worker characteristics such as:

• Occupation
• Age
• Race or ethnic origin
• Gender
• Event or exposure leading to injury or illness
• Nature of injury or illness
• Part of body affected
• Source of injury
• Number of days of job transfer or restricted work
• Number of days away from work
• Length of service with employer
• Day and time of event or exposure
• Amount of time on shift when event or exposure occurred

It is expected that the BLS will release the results of their most recent survey sometime in 2013.

For more information, you can access the original article here, or visit www.bls.gov
 
Reference:
Ruser, J. W. & Wiatrowski, W. J. (2013). Restricted work due to workplace injuries: a historical perspective. Monthly Labor Review, 136(3), 31-43.