NC Penguin

The OP may be getting the terminology wrong when referring to "disability". She's probably referring to her FMLA rights (I hope she qualifies).


NC Penguin

anotherlimey

Agreed... good businesses plan for this type of thing whenever they hire someone who might get pregnant (yes that's all females under a particular age).

If a business say they can't cope, or they say you can't have all that your entitled to off, they probably aren't great to work for.

We've got an accountant off at one of our offices; she'd been training her temporary replacement for the last two months before she went on maternity leave; and I doubt she'll be back for another 3 months or more.

Leslie

The term "disability" is not really at the discretion of the patient but more so the physician. If a woman has certain pregnancy related complications such as:

Gestational Diabetes
Preeclampsia
Gestational hypertension
Pre-term labor
Anemia

etc
etc

Then she would certainly be considered as disabled as far as work goes. There are many reasons why a pregnant woman should not be working. If her physician takes her off work for medical reasons then ... IMO ... she is certainly disabled and should be allowed disability benefits.

Shahlax

He's known I am pregnant since September (end of my first trimester) but I guess he assumed I would just take the standard 6 weeks off until I told him about my exact maternity leave plans in December.

Stupid me thought the 12 weeks family leave wouldn't be an issue. Legally you only have to goive 30 days notice for family leave and I have given him 3 months.

Shahlax

I agree pregnancy is not a disability but that's what they call it in the US, a temporary disability. I qualify for 4 weeks before birth because my doctor thinks after that it is not healthy for me to work but I can choose to if I want to. In most other countries, women leave work 4-6 weeks before birth. It just gives you time to rest and get ready for the baby and most babies arrive anytime from 2 weeks before to 2 weeks after the due date, not on the due date. I don't really want to go into labour at work, but that's just me. I can understand why some women want to work until their due date but your boss has no right to ask you to work if you have a doctor's note, which is what my boss is doing.

As for my boss saying it is costing him money, he is stating the obvious. If he's that bothered he shouldn't hire women of childbearing age.

BigDavyG

Its a bit over the top I'd agree, but no more ridiculous than the modern perception that women can raise a family and have a full career.
They are both full time jobs and the notion that the average man or woman could do both, and do them to them to a high standard is nonsense - its time that people got real.

BigDavyG

And who is paying for that......the business ??

Let's not be naive here - a business exists for one simple reason - to make money. If you happen to work for a caring, sharing employer then that's great, but its not the norm so why pretend otherwise.

NC Penguin

I did not see one reference on the dol.gov website refering to pregnancy as a temporary disability in relation to FMLA. Unless your doctor has referred to your pregnancy as a disability and has done so in writing, it's probably not in your best interests to refer to your pregnancy as a "disability", especially to your manager.

If your doctor thinks you should not work for the four weeks proir to the birth and you wish to stop working in that time, you should ask your doctor to provide a letter explaining his concerns and the reasons why.


NC Penguin

Elvira

Which is why all decent countries offer state-funded maternity pay...

BigDavyG

As far as I am aware there are major differences between countries and businesses - like I said - a business has one primary purpose......

However if you want to talk about the attitude of countries to childcare let's expand the discussion somewhat.
The biggest problem on the planet today is over population - pretty much everything else can be tracked back to the fact that there are too many people on the planet. Yet due to economics (particularly the economics associated with an ageing population) many developed countries actually pay people to procreate - unbelievable.

BigDavyG

Who pays for the business to get in and train up a temp ???
Or maybe the workload is just spread amongst existing staff and they are the ones who 'pay' for the maternity leave.

Elvira

There have been plenty of studies showing that businesses that adopt family-friendly policies reap benefits in terms of emplyee loyalty.

As for over-population and all that: are you seriously suggesting that people ought to be discouraged from having children?

BigDavyG

Your first point is open to debate, but fair enough - in many positions you're probably right - for many low-skilled positions employee loyalty isn't so important. Also the whole employee loyalty thing is a bit of a myth - sure its nice to have a good employer, but offer a lot of people a few quid extra and they'll be straight out the door.

As for the second point - it mightn't be a bad idea, but maybe for starters they should just settle for not encouraging people to have kids.
All this crap about cutting carbon emissions, etc - wonder if anyone has ever researched the impact of growing population on global warming - surely investigating that would be preferable to making a token effort by trying to stop people flying......let's be realistic - more people = more pollution, less natural resources, more wars - not much good comes of it actually - unless you count that satisfying of the ego's of the selfish and self-obsessed.

Elvira

Okay, so how are you going to ensure that there will be people to support and care for tomorrow's elderly (that's you and me, mate!!)?

Immigration? Discourage the natives from having kids but instead import healthy young people from Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia etc?

I bet that would go down well

Bob

You wouldn't like Sweden then, because don't they give out 3 years maternity leave, though I think the government picks up the tab after x amount of time...