Can an Employer Force Someone to Come Back to Work After a Workplace Injury?

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Imagine logging into a virtual meeting for work during the height of the pandemic. You struggle to maintain a professional manner and concentrate on the discussion because you just lost a family member to COVID-19. Many of us experienced tremendous emotional and mental trauma from the constant stress of balancing personal trauma against the pressure to keep up productivity at work.   Lockdown measures, uncertainty about the course of the disease, and the pressure to maintain work during a global crisis created widespread increases in anxiety and depression. Many workers struggled to return to offices where they’d lost coworkers to the virus. Over 93% of frontline healthcare workers reported an increase in stress, along with frustration and burnout.  Even if an employee escaped COVID-19 infection, they might suffer a psychological injury that must be addressed before returning to work. When a worker is injured physically on the job, there are procedures to ensure they don’t come back before they’re ready. Increasingly, this extends to the mental harm that workers suffer.  In the midst of their stress, an employee may wonder if an employer can force someone to come back to work after a workplace injury.

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