California - Light Duty Question

[JD45]

Hello,

I was injured several months ago during work. My injury left me with a restriction on my right hand of 'no -use' and 2 hours max with my left hand.

Recently my employer called me and told me I was to report for light duty. Being right hand dominate I was surprised by this and asked what I would be doing. I was told they had work and to report in.

I did so as directed and and upon arriving at work found they had no other work for me after the two hour usage of my left hand passed. I was in essence told that I would just have to sit in a chair and do nothing for the remainder of my shift.

It is quite apparent they do not have work to accommodate my restrictions.

My question is, can an employer force someone to come in to work under the guise of providing "light duty" work but in fact just make them sit in a chair and do nothing for nearly an entire day?

Thanks,
JD

[1171]

if they use physical force, call 911.
otherwise you should be free to come and go as you choose.

any employer gets to determine what "work" they'll pay their employees for.
if you choose not to accept the modified duty, the carrier will not restart temporary total disability.

[Cervical_Fusion]

I use to pay people to sit and watch training videos and do light paper work. just to have them in the building and not paying them to sit at home. and most times my employees were happy to do that.

[Manley2]

My employer had a department for this and one employee had been there for 20 years. At times we had as many as 15-20 people there at one time or another. There was little things for some to do but most of the time we sat and did nothing all day. Biggest fight was to stay awake, which most lost this battle. They wanted to close the department back in 2008 and sent some home saying they had no work for us but it still took them until this year to get it closed.