Forced maternity leave!

[dmjwife]

This is my first time posting.
I have a question I need help with.
I recently shared with my boss and the hr department of my pregnancy.
A few days later I went to the doctor and he put me on lite duty.
I went back to work (10 hour shifts) I sit in the break room for four hours.
They then took me they couldn't accommodate me and sent me home. (Doc said I couldn't stand for most then 4 hours)
Over the next few days and weeks I called to see if they found anything. I spoke with someone in hr and she informed me that I have to go on leave because they didn't have work for me and that I am a liability.
She also said that every day goes by without me on leave they were gonna take me unpaid time.
A week later I get a call from hr asking why I haven't been to work and I told her because I was told I couldn't.
She then told me to come in on Wednesday which is my normal start of the work week.
That Tuesday she called and said her boss told her that I can't come in because I'm a liability to the company lets keep in mind they are a very big company with as least 2500 people.
She then said that she was gonna put me in leave although I didn't ask for one.
Now I have missed my rent and in jeopardy of losing my home.
I don't know what to do.
Can someone please gave me advice on what I can do.
I also have a two year old at home and I'm due in December.

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

Whereabouts in the world are you?

In the UK they can only for force start mat leave in your last 4 weeks of pregnancy. If you are signed off then if would fall inline with your sickness policy so whether you get paid or not would be based of length of service and how much sick leave you have taken in a 12 month period.

 

[dmjwife]

I live in the US and because they forced me to me so far I've been gone for 5 weeks.
Other then that I have been at work I haven't really taken any time off. Now I and 11 weeks ago.

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

Ah, sorry I don't know anything about US employment laws.

 

[cookette]

Dmjwife, I'm not sure but this sounds highly illegal...

 

[spunky84]

I can't say for certainty as I don't know if it varies by state, but how long have you been at your job? Do they offer FMLA?

I would check company policy on this as it sounds odd for them to force you into maternity leave.

I'm in OH. Where I work, they only have full time. We'd have to use our PTO in a situation like this. They would probably strongly advise that we sign up for FMLA, but they can't force us, but without signing up for FMLA, if we go over our allotted PTO allowed, our job could be at risk.

In my company, this situation would probably cut into maternity time allowed - but then again, in a situation like this where there's extenuating circumstances, they may allow further consideration (they have in other situations - they take it case by case). But it protects our job.

In normal medical situations, we could have a dr's note, but the dr's orders doesn't protect our job.

I would check your company's maternity policy, time off w/ dr's orders, FMLA, etc. If anything, to protect yourself. You really need to know what your rights and the company's rights are in this situation.

 

[jd83]

I can't say for certainty as I don't know if it varies by state, but how long have you been at your job? Do they offer FMLA?

I would check company policy on this as it sounds odd for them to force you into maternity leave.

I'm in OH. Where I work, they only have full time. We'd have to use our PTO in a situation like this. They would probably strongly advise that we sign up for FMLA, but they can't force us, but without signing up for FMLA, if we go over our allotted PTO allowed, our job could be at risk.

In my company, this situation would probably cut into maternity time allowed - but then again, in a situation like this where there's extenuating circumstances, they may allow further consideration (they have in other situations - they take it case by case). But it protects our job.

In normal medical situations, we could have a dr's note, but the dr's orders doesn't protect our job.

I would check your company's maternity policy, time off w/ dr's orders, FMLA, etc. If anything, to protect yourself. You really need to know what your rights and the company's rights are in this situation.

Agree, I'm in Ohio too, and it really depends where you work, how long you've been there, whether they are even required to give you FMLA (not every company has to, but given that OP says company over 2500 employees, I'd imagine they have it if she's in US, but a lot of places only offer FMLA after you've been employed for a set amount of time too). But even if you were to take FMLA now, FMLA only protects your job for the duration of the set amount of time they give you. Usually 12 weeks total per year, so after that point, if you are still unfit to perform that job, I'm not sure there would be much you could do. Having a doctor's note stating you can only do light duty won't necessarily hold your job for you if the job doesn't have any light duty options available, and you've exhausted your PTO and FMLA. One of my cousins had a situation similar to this when she was pregnant, and she just ended up having to find another job. THey couldn't find anything that she was able to do that was light duty enough per the doctor's requirements (it was a factory), and it was a liability to the company to have her performing regular duties given the doctor's requirements for light duty. After using her PTO up, and not being scheduled, she just ended up having to find something else. She had bills to pay and couldn't wait around continually.

I would be looking further into their HR policies for FMLA, sick leave, short term disability, etc, find any options they have that are available to you before you decide what to do. Just make sure you fully understand their policies so that you know if what they are doing is legal for their company.