Tell staff: Pregnancy accommodation is brief.

Your company must reasonably accommodate pregnant employees who have temporary medical restrictions, including offering light-duty assignments or schedule changes. But it's important to make it crystal clear to the pregnant worker that the accommodation is truly temporary.

That's because if the worker takes FMLA leave, she's entitled to return to her old job when leave is over. Without clear records that the employer means the accommodation to be temporary, she may later argue she was denied reinstatement to the last position she held.

Recent case: Jennifer, a construction firm dispatcher, was assigned to the last shift, which ended around midnight. When she became pregnant, she...