I am seven months pregnant and have been told by my employer that I have to take a disability leave of abscence (with no pay) because I am no longer able to "fulfill" my job duties. Recently my pregnancy has caused me to have major back pains and I am much slower to get around. I have seen my doctor and a physical therapist and both say that I am fine to work, I just need to be aware of the pain and stop if it is not tolerable. My job duties entail nothing physical (except maybe to get up to use the copy machine) and my work has not suffered or fallen behind since I have started having these pains, yet I have been forced to take a disability leave of abscence. Is this pregnacy discrimination? What are my rights? Who should I contact?

It's unclear if it's discrimination or not. Depending on your job duties, being "slower to get around" could have a real impact on how you are carrying them out.

I have a sit down, behind the desk sort of job. I am the bookkeeper for my office. My exact job description (that I signed when hired) reads that my responsibilities include: Processing rent payments when received, being able to work weekends when needed, maintaining the purchase order register, processing invoices for payment, maintaining service logs, maintaining time records for employees, making bank deposits and performing duties and assuming other responsibilities as may be assigned. I I am still 100% mobile, I just walk much slower than I did 6 months ago. I don't understand how this could be a problem since my job duties involve being seated.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act states that you can't be treated differently because you're pregnant and that employers cannot just assume that pregnant women are incapable of doing their jobs due to their pregnancies. If you're employer is doing so, I'd suggest contacting the EEOC in order to file a complaint: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-preg.html

Thank you very much, I will definetly contact the EEOC. One more question, I thought that in order to be put on disability a doctor had to tell you that you are unable to work, and therefore request that you go on a medical leave, not the employer decide that you are unable to work. Am I correct here?

Not completely. Employers can put someone out on disability if, for example, there's no light duty work available for someone whose doctor says he can work but with restrictions that the employer can't accommodate.

I'd also like to add that while I'm not in any way disagreeing with Marketeer, the PDA saying that you have to be treated exactly as any other employee means that if another employee with a non-maternity condition would be required to go on disability leave under the same circumstances, so can you be.