Legal Question in Employment Law in Virginia
I am a nurse manager for a hospice. Our nurses are required to provide on-call coverage for off business hours to out.r patients. I have a nurse who is pregnant and just going into her 3rd trimester (6 Months) and by her own admission her pregnancy is normal without complication. She brought me a Dr's note after a routine visit that stated, she is only allowed to work 40 hours per week and cannot work on-call due to late pregnancy. I have enployed many pregnant nurses throughout the years who worked up to their delivery and performed their full job duties, including myself. Nobody likes to pull on-call duty but it is necessary in the health care profession. I personally don't feel that we can accomodate this request because it is an entregal component of the position. I related this to our HR department who did not agree due to the ADA. We had another nurse that hurt her ankle (off duty) Dr wanted her to work 6 hrs/day. We told her full duty or no duty. Do I have any recourse as manager except to let her set a trend for other pregnant employees?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You likely would be well advised to follow the advice of your HR unit
in the matter (in my opinion).