Medical Certificate or Fitness-for-Work Clearance

Populated medical certificates and fitness-for-work clearances held by employers: practitioner certificates given as evidence for personal / sick leave (Fair Work Act 2009 s 107(3) lets an employer require evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person), certificates of fitness or capacity issued outside a workers' compensation claim, fitness-for-duty assessments, pre-employment medical clearances and return-to-work clearances. The records name the employee or patient, state a practitioner's opinion that the person is unfit, or fit for normal, restricted or modified duties over a stated period, and often carry a diagnosis, work restrictions and the practitioner's name and provider or registration number. Boundary: workers' compensation claim records, Form 132M work capacity certificates and Comcare certificates of capacity belong to au-qld-workers-compensation-claim; statutory WHS health monitoring reports (Schedule 14 chemicals, lead, asbestos, audiometry) belong to au-whs-health-monitoring-record. Both are excluded from this classifier's enforce tiers.

Type: regex
Engine: boost_regex
Confidence: medium
Confidence justification: Medium: certificate wording is standardised and the enforce tiers need a named employee or patient plus a dated fitness outcome, which leave policies, guidance and blank certificates do not carry. Provider and registration numbers are matched by label only (no public-format validation), and clinic letters or rehabilitation notes that follow the same layout will also match. 85/75 are heuristic evidence tiers, not measured accuracy; test values are synthetic certificates laid out like GP certificates and employer return-to-work clearances.
Jurisdictions: au
Regulations: Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld)
Frameworks: ISO 27001, ISO 27701, QGISCF
Data categories: health, pii, employment
Scope: narrow
Risk rating: 8
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Degraded, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

(?i)\b(?:medical\s+certificate|certificate\s+of\s+(?:fitness|illness|incapacity|capacity)|(?:fitness[\s-]+for[\s-]+(?:work|duty)|return[\s-]+to[\s-]+work|medical)\s+(?:certificate|clearance)|fitness\s+for\s+duty\s+assessment|pre-?employment\s+medical\s+(?:certificate|clearance|declaration)|(?:unfit|not\s+fit)\s+for\s+(?:work|duty|duties)|fit\s+for\s+(?:normal|full|restricted|modified|light|alternative|pre-injury|usual)\s+duties)\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

practitioner, provider number, AHPRA, medical centre, restrictions, diagnosis, personal leave, sick leave, modified duties, review appointment

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

Medical certificate Patient: Jordan Teston I certify that I examined the above patient on 14/09/2026 and in my opinion they are unfit for work from 14/09/2026 to 18/09/2026 inclusive. Condition: acute gastroenteritis Doctor: Dr Priya Teston Provider number: 9999999Z Practice name: Carrow Street Medical Centre — 85 tier - GP certificate with patient, unfit-for-work date range, condition, doctor and provider number by label
Return to work clearance Employee: Sam Teston Employee number: 300912 Fit for restricted duties from 22/09/2026 to 06/10/2026 Restrictions: no lifting over 10 kg and no night shifts Review appointment: 06/10/2026 — 85 tier - return to work clearance with employee fields, restricted duties period and restrictions
Certificate of fitness Name of employee: Alex Teston Fit to return to normal duties on 28/09/2026. — 75 tier - fitness certificate with a named employee and a dated return to duties, no medical detail
Medical certificate This is to certify that Riley Teston has a medical condition which will prevent them from working from 3 September 2026 to 5 September 2026. — 75 tier - certifying wording with the patient's name and a date range, no practitioner block
Fitness for duty assessment - electrical fitter Candidate: Kai Teston Outcome: fit with restrictions, effective 15/09/2026 Examining doctor: Dr Lee Teston Limitations: no work at heights above 2 m pending vestibular review — 85 tier - fitness for duty assessment with candidate, dated outcome, examining doctor and limitations

Should not match

Sick leave policy. This policy applies to all employees. Employees must provide a medical certificate for any absence of more than two consecutive days stating that the employee was unfit for work for the period of the absence. — Sick / personal leave policy (65 at most)
Medical certificate Patient name: ______________ This is to certify that ______________ is unfit for work from __/__/____ to __/__/____ Doctor: ______________ Provider number: ______________ — Blank certificate (65 at most)
Evidence for sick and carer's leave. An employer can ask for evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person, such as a medical certificate or a statutory declaration. A medical certificate might say the employee was unfit for work from 1 July to 3 July. More at fairwork.gov.au. — Fair Work Ombudsman evidence guidance page
Work capacity certificate - workers' compensation (Form 132M) Worker name: Jordan Teston Claim number: 25Q/448193 Capacity for work: fit for suitable duties from 02/09/2026 to 30/09/2026 Diagnosis: right shoulder strain Treating practitioner: Dr Priya Teston — WorkCover work capacity certificate - belongs to au-qld-workers-compensation-claim, excluded here
GPs say demand for medical certificates spikes every winter, and telehealth services now issue many of them online, the college said. — News article

Known false positives

Sick leave and personal leave policies, enterprise agreement clauses and Fair Work Ombudsman guidance describing what a medical certificate should say. Mitigation: No populated employee / patient field with a dated outcome, so these stay at 65; policy, guidance, fairwork.gov.au and "satisfy a reasonable person" wording are excluded from enforce tiers.
Blank certificate pads and practice letterhead. Mitigation: Person fields reject blank lines and placeholders, and the outcome needs a real date; fixture wording is excluded by the shared template-exclusion dictionary.
Workers' compensation certificates and WHS health monitoring reports that use the same fitness language. Mitigation: Form 132M, work capacity certificate, workers' compensation, WorkCover, Comcare, claim number, date of injury, health monitoring report and Schedule 14 wording exclude the record from this classifier's enforce tiers so it is handled by the dedicated classifiers.
Clinic correspondence and rehabilitation notes that name a patient and a dated fitness opinion. Mitigation: These are health information about an identified person and are acceptable matches.