I work as a CNA at a hospital and my doctor gave me a weight restriction. I was wondering what my rights are as far as keeping my job/position/pay/hours, etc. The HR department has found me a temporary position with a doctors office, but what do I do about my original position? Are they required to hold my postion throughout this temporary reassignment and then through my leave? Originally, my shift manager was wanting me to take my leave now, but I still have 11 weeks until my due date. I talked with the unit manager and HR until we got this temporary positon worked out.

1. How many employees are with in a 75 mile radius?
2. How long have you worked there?
3. Did you work at least 1250 hours in the past year there?

What you are entitled to depends upon the answers to these questions.

1. There are well over 300 employees I know they employ over 200 RN's alone
2. I have been there over a year
3. yes

Then they must hold your job open for 12 weeks. They need not hold it for you after that period whether you are ready to come back or not. Your leave and transfer to another job would fall under FMLA. http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/

They are also not obligated to offer you the temporary position until you deliver and may place you on leave instead. This is not to say that they will, only that they can. It appears as though your employer is trying to bve accommodating by offering the light duty and holding your original position. Ultimately though, once you are out of that job for 12 weeks, their legal obligation ends. I suggest talking to your manager or HR about their intentions. They may well be willing to continue doing more than the minimum required.

Thank you for your response. The HR manager is out until Thursday this week so I will get back with her then.

What would they do if a non-pregnant coworker came in with the same restriction? Would they offer a temp position and return to the orginial position once cleared by the doctor?

They can not treat you any different than they would treat any other employee. The same is true in reverse they do not have to treat you any different than they would treat someone else.

I have seen them allow nurses to continue working with lifting restrictions that were not pregnant (hurt back or arm, etc). That is why I was so upset at first.. they let the RNs continue working and just made the aides do all her lifting work. But now that its reversed, they wouldn't let me continue as an aide. If they would not have found me another position I was going to argue that point.

Were the nurses who hurt their backs injured on the job? It's not illegal to restrict light duty to people who've been injured at work.

no, it was injuries from outside of work.

It isn't illegal to have different rules for different classes of employees though. They can offer light duty to nurses but not aides. It may be unfair, but it is entirely legal. It also may make a difference in how long they are willing to accommodate the restriction on the job. If you need light duty for nearly 3 months, that is very different from someone who needs to take it easy for a week or two.