Newly Pregnant Employee

durasupreme

Employee on 2nd Shift is newly pregnant and brought in a slip from her physician stating "due to severe fatigue ee needs to limit work day to 6-8 hours per day for the duration of her pregnancy". 2nd Shift works four 10-hour days, M-Th. EE not eligible for FMLA (started March 2002). Requirement to maintain fulltime status is 35 hours/week - restrictions will put her under that, so ee would need to go pt. EE wants to maintain ft status by "making up" hours on Day Shift on Fridays, or transfer to Day Shift. The "making up" desire is not available. Do we have an obligation to find a position on Day Shift and transfer her (5 8-hour days), or can we put on parttime status. Based on work limitations she will burn up her allowable "points" under our attendance policy in short order? Help!

Theresa Gegen TX

First, check you state FMLA laws (if your state has one -- Texas doesn't but some do).

Second, what you need to do is treat her like any other employee, regardless of her pregancy. If there is an available position for her on day, give it to her. If there is not an available position, you don't have to "make one up." Just make sure that you do not treat her any worse they you would treat someone who is not pregnant.

Good Luck!

ritaanz

What are you going to do if someone with more seniority wanted a transfer to first shift? I do not think that because this employee is pregnant that she should be entitled to go to the front of the line.

Eliant

I have to concurr, with Theresa. First verify with your state FMLA law.
If you have an open position in a different shift or diffrent department, you must give consideration to how does your company go about filling these positions. She could be a possible contender based on her skills and the requirments of the open position. Don't be afraid to treat this case like any other case, otherwise you will find yourself down the line with employees asking you to do for them what you did for Ms. Pregnant

Human Resources Manager

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-22-03 AT 08:26AM (CST)[/font][p]If she has only been employed with the company since March of 2002, then the Minnesota Parental Leave Act does not currently apply to her.

"Employers with 21 or more employees must allow at least six weeks of unpaid leave of absence upon request by the employee. The employee (both mothers and fathers) must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least 20 hours a week to be eligible for parental leave."

As far as transferring to a different shift, I agree that you should follow the same procedure that you would follow for anyone else.

Do keep in mind that if she does stay on during her pregnancy, by the time she gives birth, she will probably qualify for FMLA and/or MN Parental Leave.

Don D

If you have a union or if you have a pattern and practice of awarding shift openings based on a seniority system, the fact that your employee is pregnant will not supersede those types of seniority systems observed by your company. Nor do the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and FMLA cause or require you to offer the pregnant employee privileges or rights that exceed those of other employees who might otherwise be ill. I agree that you 'shouldn't be afraid to enforce consistency'. I also feel that you should not be afraid that the PDA or FMLA will kick in special and separate privileges due to the pregnancy. Just my opinion.

Balloonman

I have run in to similar issues before and I did not accomodate, as we did not accomodate non work related restrictions. Caught hell initially untill I got the union steward to understand that I was treating her the same as everyone else. She ended up having to go out on disability. Something to keep in mind, the fatigue issue, may lessen further along in the pregnancy, so maybe you grant her leave, and you may be amazed how quickly she can work the four tens.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Rockie

I agree with the posts about treating pregnancy issues the same as other temporary disabiity. It may be a case of employee simply wants to transfer to a day shift. If you don't have one available, not obligated to produce one just to accomodate pregnancy.