July 5, 2023
Attention! New laws protect workers who recently gave birth
If you are a worker who recently gave birth, you have special rights in the workplace regardless of your immigration status:
Effective December 29, 2022, the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act grants certain workers who have recently given birth an additional workplace right. Under the PUMP Act, workers who are nursing have the right while at work to a reasonable paid break in a private place, other than a bathroom, to pump breast milk by machine or express breast milk by hand for one year after childbirth. An employer’s failure to provide nursing mothers the time and space to express breast milk is a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal wage law.
For example, in May 2023, the United States Department of Labor found Whataburger Restaurant LLC failed to provide an employee a reasonable paid break to express breast milk. The employee had left the property to express milk and their employer terminated the employee for doing so. As a result of violating the law, Whataburger had to pay $1,800 in back wages and damages.
If you think your employer is violating your right to a reasonable break time and location to express breast milk or has retaliated against you for exercising that right, you can file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor online or by phone at 1-866-487-9243.
If you have any questions about your labor rights, contact Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc (CDM) from México at: 800 590 1773, from the United States at: 1 855 234 9699.
Imágen: Flickr/Conselho Nacional de Justiça - CNJ 2018/Vía Flickr.com
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