EE demanding new schedule

AnneLa

I have an employee who went out on FMLA for one week - she's 3.5 months pregnant.

She came back to work with restrictions from her doctor that she only be allowed to work no more than 40 hours per week. That's not an issue here. The problem is that this employee is dictating to us the hours that she wants to work which in not in the best interest of her department. We told her that we could not accommodate those hours. Now she is having her doctor fax us over an note with a schedule that they put together equaling 40 hours.

Do we have to agree to those hours or can we require that she work her original schedule prior to her FMLA? On some nights, she does work until 7:00 pm. Thanks..........

Anne

Don D

Unless your state law differs, intermittent leave is the only thing this employee can be asking for. It is entirely appropriate under the regulations for the employer to insist on its own version of intermittent FMLA. The employee has no authority to dictate the work hours. The doctor's input, although perhaps valuable, is not an overriding factor in your decision. If you decide to go with the 40 hour recommendation/request, together you should decide on the hours, but it is the employer's final option to agree or disagree with those hours.

Balloonman

Don is right, yes we will accomodate the 40 hour per week limitation. However I would not allow the employee to dictate the hours. I would tell her she has the choice of working the schedule you set or resigning.
My $0.02 worth!
DJ The Balloonman

AnneLa

Have just received the OB-GYN docs note today........ can only work from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. She is not restricted from working on Saturday though. How can I refuse if this is medically necessary? What if something happened to her and she miscarried and blamed us because we did not follow doctors orders? Has anyone delt with this type of issue before? If she was having chemo and needed restricted hours, we would comply.

Don D

I would not comply with the time parameters shown by the clinic, unless it met the employer's needs. If the clinic is attempting to restrict hours to 8 per day, that's one thing, but I would not allow them to dictate 8-4. That's merely for her convenience, pure and simple. Unless this woman is a werewolf or a sorceress, pregnancy is not affected by moonlight or evening hours or pre-dawn elements of nature. This situation is moving from FMLA (intermittent scheduling, to allow periodic visits or appointments, agreed to by the employer) to wishful ADA (accommodation of certain limitations suggested by a physician). This is not ADA. If anything, it would be FMLA and you need not accommodate a work schedule specifying hours of the day.

Whatever

I'm confused. I do not understand how anyone can be restricted to a specific eight hours each day (i.e. why not work from 8:30 to 4:30 etc. etc.) Furthermore, the ee is making a demand, not a request. The ee is not trying to work with you. You have the right to set the hours. And, in this case, you should.

LindaS

Agree with the others....

This is a situation, although unfortunate, that is not all that uncommon. An employee doesn't like the demands that are placed on them by the employer so they take advantage of a situation such as this. If the employee is unable to work the hours she is normally scheduled, keeping in mind the 40 hour minimum, then the employee doesn't have a job.

I think the physician would be hard pressed to explain WHY a pregnant person cannot work past 4:00.

Being pregnant does NOT grant a person carte blanche regarding their employment so make sure you treat this person the same as anyone else and if that means discipline, so be it.

Rockie

I agree with everyone else. This employee,unfortunately, is using her pregnancy to dictate her own hours.

We have a similar situation in our medical practice. An employee, who had a tardiness problem pre-pregnancy, is now blaming her inability to get to work on time as being pregnant. I advised supervisor that unless her physician states she has a medical reason for this, she just needs to get to bed earlier so she can get to work on time.