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An employer's failed attempt to appeal a reinstatement order holds two key lessons for others in the "tricky" position of determining whether workers can safely perform the requirements of their role, a lawyer says.

The case involved a South32 employee with a "difficult medical history going back to the 1990s", which included separate conditions related to his back, shoulder, heart and spine, Kingston Reid special counsel Brad Popple tells HR Daily.

When determining whether he was fit to perform the inherent requirements of his role, the employer was faced with two conflicting medical opinions – an experienced occupational physician said the employee was permanently incapacitated and unable to perform his role; while the neurosurgeon who had operated on the employee's spine regarded him as fully fit for work.

"The employer, who is of course not medically trained, is in this invidious position of working out 'what do we do about that and whose opinion do we believe?'," Popple says...