The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires businesses covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act to allow mothers unpaid break time for nursing their child. All employers are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act break time requirement unless they have fewer than 50 employees and can demonstrate that compliance would impose an undue hardship. This obligation lasts for at least one year after the child is born.
The law requires the company to provide a suitable location (other than a bathroom )which is shielded from view and is free from intrusion, permit a reasonable break time given the circumstances, and let the worker take as much break time as she needs to express milk. However, here’s little guidance on what constitutes a “suitable location” and the length of a “reasonable” break. For example, the Department of Labor suggests two or three 15-minute breaks during an eight-hour shift. There’s also the matter of tracking for the employee’s time: Is she supposed to clock in and out for every nursing break – or can she coordinate a break with a meal or rest period?
To learn more, go to: http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/faqBTNM.htm
http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs73.htm
http://www.usbreastfeeding.org/LegislationPolicy/ExistingLegislation/tabid/233/Default.aspx and finally
your BNA State Law Summary on HR That Works.
