When female employees return from FMLA after childbirth, what kind of rights are they entitled to as far as break times for nursing reasons? We have an employee who needs a long break in the morning and one in the afternoon. They are each about a 30 minute break. Could this be considered an intermittent continuation of her FMLA? Her supervisor is complaining about it and I'm trying to convey to him that we need to be compassionate, etc. But if there are rights, FMLA possibilities, etc., that would make it easier.

Sorry if this is TMI, but I took one 20 min break at 10am and then one 20 minute break again at 2pm when I was nursing.

Many states now have laws that require employers to give nursing mothers a break time. In Illinois, where I am, a law (820 ILCS 260/1 et seq. - Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act) requires companies to provide employees with reasonable, unpaid, break times and to try to find a private place for expressing the milk. The law does say, "An employer is not required to provide break time under this Section if to do so would unduly disrupt the employer's operations." But if my employer told me that I could not feed my child, I'd quit.

My bank was fantastic, and accommodating in everyway for every nursing mother we've had.

One more thing - can you tell I am passionate about this- here is a link with information for other states:

http://www.lalecheleague.org/LawBills.html

Half an hour seems long, my sessions were 15 to 20 minutes, once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. My state (South Dakota) has no laws requiring employers to allow it, but I think they would be crazy not too! I'm with Mom of Princess Nataliebear, I would have quit too!

I'm a "hard case," but not even I would want to discuss the appropritate time period that it should take to express milk with a female employee. Tell him to either get over it or to please review his intended remarks with you before he relates them to her, you are not going to do it for him.

I don't think compassion is a factor, but common sense should weigh in pretty heavily. Is it possible that he just doesn't understand?

Or he is a jerk? Did I say that?

She could be having difficulty, etc. - I don't see half an hour as unreasonable.

When I was much younger I would have replied something like "Okay, how about if all the women let the babies starve? Would that help the schedule?" But I am not as feisty now, if those who know me can believe that!

Oh lordy, does that bring back memories for me. Back in the dark ages, employers didn't have to provide those breaks, but my boss was a woman who strongly believed in motherhood and the benefits of nursing.

The only problem was that the only "private" place for this (excuse the TMI...) was a stall in the ladies room.

Yeeccchhh!

Depending on the mother's ability to produce milk and/or her skill at using the pump (is it one of those manual pumps????), 30 minutes does not seem unreasonable.

BTW - I second Kaybee's first comment!

Thank you, everyone, and I agree with you. It's part of life. I have advised the supervisor against any conversations with the nursing employee until I get more info. I was hoping that our state, Virginia, had a law that required employers to allow a time and place for nursing mothers. So far, I haven't found anything. Why couldn't you use FMLA for that? Couldn't you say that it is "medically necessary"??

Cheese,

This is what I found for your state:
Va. Code 2.2-1147.1 (2002) guarantees a woman the right to breast-feed her child on any property owned, leased or controlled by the state. The bill also stipulates that childbirth and related medical conditions specified in the Virginia Human Rights Act include activities of lactation, including breast-feeding and expression of milk by a mother for her child. (H.B. 1264)

HJ 145 (2002) Encourages employers to recognize the benefits of breastfeeding and to provide unpaid break time and appropriate space for employees to breast-feed or express milk.

Thank you so much for the info!!!

Just wanted to chime in on the amount of time spent expressing. If she has a single pump I can also see this being a 30 minute project or longer. Also remember it isn't just the pumping time, you also have to take into account set up and clean up time. The pump may need to be washed, cords unhooked and put away.

Good point, I never thought of the single pumps, manual pumps, etc. Then 30 minutes is definitely not too long. My bad!

As a current nursing mother, I agree with what everyone has said here. Luckily my employer has no issue with me pumping during business hours. With my first pregnancy, the only place to pump was in the restroom, however, now with our new building we have a much better spot in our locker room.

If the woman was using a single pump or expressing manually, it would certainly take 30 minutes. Even a pump that can express both breasts at the same time (I have this type) takes at least 20 minutes from set-up to clean-up.

We also currently have a part-time teller who is taking a morning break to pump.

Depending on how long of a lunch break your employee has you might suggest taking 30 minutes from their lunch break and giving them that time to add to their breaks. We provide 2 15 min breaks and an hour lunch to most of our employees and this seems to work best for scheduling purposes. My employees have to meet a certain level of availability and this fixed that problem with our operations department

www.banbreastfeeding.com

Just wanted to add that some state laws specifically state that the employer must provide a "private" place that is NOT a restroom stall. Of course, my employer interpreted this to mean that the server room was the perfect place since it had a locked door. It's cold enough in there when you're fully clothed!

I wish the thought processes had been this progressive when I was a nursing mom. That was long enough ago that I don't think we even mentioned "nursing" after walking through the front door of the building. I have a mom in our department who just returned to work this week and is nursing. We had previously accommodated the need in a small, yet comfortable area in our building, with a lock on the door. When she indicated that she would be expressing at least twice/day, it never crossed my mind to even ask "how long will this take".

I know there were some law changes regarding this in 2010, so I'm bringing it up again.

I'm due at the end of May 2012 and plan to pump when I return to work. I'm a salary employee so I don't punch a clock. Would I take the breaks I need and take a shortened lunch? My employer does have to provide a private place to pump other than the restroom, correct?

I had to add to this. My daughter works in publishing in NYC. When it came close to her due date, her company hired a taxi to sit outside their building all day in case she went into labor. (In the Soho area, taxis don't run except rush hour.)Plus, her good friend, who worked in another dept, was giving the role of going with her to the hospital. Then when she went back to work, they had a room with magazines for mothers,a fridge plus access to a nurse if she had any questions. Plus, they had back-up day care located in the bottom of the Rockefeller Center she could use for 20 days a year and only pay $10. Wow! Now that was a company who recognized her value as an employee and a new mother and was able to put all the pieces together. By the way, when this all happened, she had only worked there 6 months.

Under FLSA, Employers are required to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” Employers are also required to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”

The FLSA requirement of break time for nursing mothers to express breast milk does not preempt State laws that provide greater protections to employees (for example, providing compensated break time, providing break time for exempt employees, or providing break time beyond 1 year after the child’s birth).

You can find more information here http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs73.htm

That's awesome, jcaldwell. Nice to see a company go above and beyond. I read this fact sheet and it made me wonder if I was covered being that my employer has less than 50 employees and I'm a salary employee, but after re-reading a couple of times I think my employer has to provide a private place other than a restroom and can't prohibit me from taking the breaks I need. I think my employer would be accomodating, but want to be prepared before I discuss this with HR. Department of Labor-Nursing Mothers Fact Sheet

*W*W*, you should also check out your state laws. The FLSA is just the basic outline of what the employer has to do and each state law takes it from there.

For example, Wisconsin does not have a specific nursing mother statute, but it does have one that requires all breaks under 30 minutes to be paid breaks - nursing mother breaks usually fall within that.

The nursing mother in my office comes upstairs to our little bathroom to pump. I don't think we have any other place in the building for her to do this. Didn't realize that we are required to provide her with one.

My only option that I'm aware of is a small unused office, which is fine with me.