Human Resource Blog

Pregnancy Complications

We are a residential cleaning company in Missouri employeeing 30 people. We have a pregnant employee who left the job early on Monday to see the doctor due to cramping. She came back on Wednesday with a note that said she needed to be on light duty. We said we clean houses, we don’t really have light duty. Can your doctor give us more feedback? After we receive the feedback and can determine that we can accomodate it, we will call you. Now the employee is threatening us with Pregnancy Discrimination Act saying that previous employees have worked in the office while on disability. This is true…one employee who hurt herself on the job and was on Worker’s Comp worked in the office and another employee with an off the job injury worked in the office right after we had an office opening…but then we eliminated that office position. That position no longer exists. Are we required to let her work in the office even tho we have no position because we allowed the other two employees to?

First, you are right to require that the employees doctor tell you specifically what restrictions she has. Light duty can mean working 20 hours per week, or not lifting more than 20 lbs., or not being on her feet all day, or… To limit your liability, you need to know specifically what restrictions this employee has. You probably should not permit her to return to work until her doctor clarifies that for you. Only then can you determine if you have a job that this employee can safely do.

Second, if you genuinely do not have any job that this employee can do while on light duty, you are not required to create one. The employee is correct that under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, if you have permitted employees on medical restrictions to work a light duty assignment before, you must permit her to do the same…if a light duty assignment is available. But if there was a light duty assignment available then, and there is not now, that is a different situation.

If you do have an office opening, for your own protection, assign the employee to it. If you do not, document when you eliminated that position. Obviously, if the employee actually files suit you will want to consult an attorney.