Pregnancy and a physical job

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Georgia

I need major help on this. I am currently 28 weeks pregnant. My job is extremely physical. I do visual displays for a department store. I recently turned in a doctor's note that will limit my ability to perform the job. This is my second pregnancy with this employer. Now, just a year ago, I was pregnant as well and followed the same procedure of turning in my doctor's note when the job became to physical to handle. I was given a position on the sales floor as a sales associate until my maternity leave started. I returned after my maternity leave to my visual position all the while remaining at the same pay rate. This time, my employer has informed me that I can move to the sales floor as a sales associate, however my job will not be held for me. They are citing the length of the leave from the position as grounds for not saving my job.
I am confused because this year's time from the position is much shorter than last year's. There also has not been any change to the employee policy showing that my employer would not follow the same path as they had before concerning my pregnancy.
What do I do? I don't quite understand the difference this time. The arrangements for my maternity leave and position switch last year were made by the head of human resources for my company's division. Surely, she would have worked within the law. I don't know where I stand legally. What rights do I have? It's not like we didn't go through this just last year.

I suspect I know what's going on, but to confirm it, please let me know how much leave TOTAL you have taken in the last 12 months.

Did you take FMLA before?
When did you return from your last maternity leave?
Do you work full time?

Hi there!
Here's some more details...
In the year 2004, I took approximately eight weeks of maternity leave. Nine days of that leave consisted of personal days and vacation. I work on a full time basis and according to my pay stub average 40.17 hours weekly. Our new fiscal year began on February first of this year. I hope that they are not trying to include my leave from last year. My intent this year was to take only 6 weeks of FMLA leave with a a combination of my accrued vacation time to earn my short term disability pay. I believethat we earn vacation time per month. I also planned to use my sick and personal days, so I wouldn't gobble up so much FMLA time. Let me know what you think because I think that I'm getting the shaft.

Sick leave, vacation, and FMLA leave can run concurrently, if that is your company's policy. If so, using your sick or vacation leave will not leave you more FMLA available leave than if you did not.

Reiko, most employers track FMLA leave on a rolling 12-month basis. (The other option is usually calendar year.)

If your 2004 FMLA leave was within the last 12 months and your employer tracks FMLA on a rolling 12-month basis, then the leave you took last year could indeed reduce the amount of FMLA leave you have available in 2005.

You may need to check to see how they are counting the FMLA time, rolling year, calendar year, fisical year. That is why it is important to know when you returned from maternity leave last year, if you have worked enough hours since then. FMLA will include vacation and personal days also. So If you used 8 weeks total you would have 4 weeks remaining if you didn't qualify for another 12 week cycle or you might have to work longer without restrictions. Did you understand how FMLA worked before you got pregnant again?

FMLA isn't 12 weeks per occurance, it's 12 weeks per 12 month period. If you have not yet "earned back" all the time you used last year, it's entirely possible that you don't have the full 12 weeks available to you. If that is the case, once you have used whatever FMLA time you DO have left, your job would not have to be protected after that.

That's why I wanted to know how much time you have taken in the last 12 months. Not, in calendar 2004, but since March 11, 2004. While it is possible that your employer uses calendar year or fiscal year as their 12 month selection, the very large majority of employers use the rolling method, which tracks time by when you took it. Using that method, and solely as an example, if you used three weeks in, say, May of 2004, you would not get those three weeks back until May of 2005.

I understand and thank you.
My maternity leave ran from March 14th - May 8th 2004.
My leave this year is expected to run from May 22nd- July 3rd.

However, they are trying to include my time on the floor as a sales associate as time off from my position. Therefore surpassing the weeks allowed to hold my job, although I will still be working in the store. I thought that I was just moving to a position that was less strenuous until I started my actual maternity leave.

Call your HR department, taking you out of the display windows and placing you in the sales job is a tempoary ADA accommodaiton and by history thay have provided this same accommodation in the past, it is not the same thing as FMLA although it may coincide with FMLA, the HR department should clear it up for your supervisor. If not, say, "OK then I'll work in the display window until the onset of labor, please line the floor with heavy duty plastic in case my water breaks on the job"

taking you out of the display windows and placing you in the sales job is a tempoary ADA accommodtation rmet, she was PREGNANT. They may have provided her a temporary accommodation per her doctor's restrictions but it had nothing to do with the ADA.

Pregnancy is not protected under the ADA. It is a temporary condition and as such does not meet the definition of disabled.

Thank you all so much for your replies. It has been a tremendous help just knowing something!