The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released a new fact sheet on break time in the workplace for nursing mothers under the FLSA. The fact sheet provides general information on the break time requirements for nursing mothers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These new requirements took effect when the PPACA was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The new FLSA requirement of break time for nursing mothers to express breast milk does not preempt State laws that provide greater protections to employees.
The new fact sheet provides general requirements for employers. Employers are now required to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” In addition to this, employers are required to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from a view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”
The new fact sheet also details the time and location of breaks for nursing mothers to express breast milk. The fact sheet states that “…employers are required to provide a reasonable amount of break time to express milk as frequently as needed by the nursing mother. The frequency of breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary.” Since there is no set time for the length of breaks, or how often an employee may take these breaks, it is important to try and be flexible and accommodating and allow the employee to take breaks as needed.
The location that the company or organization provides for the nursing mother to express breast milk must be functional as a space for expressing breast milk, and may not be a bathroom even if it is a private bathroom. However, the space the company or organization provides for the nursing mother does not have to function solely as a space for expressing breast milk, but it must be available when it is needed in order to meet the statutory requirements.
Employers are not required under the FLSA to provide breaks to nursing mothers who are exempt from the overtime pay requirements of Section 7, but businesses should be aware that they may be obligated to provide such breaks under State laws. In addition to this, employers with fewer than fifty employees are not subject to the FLSA break time requirement if compliance with the provision would impose an undue hardship.
HR Made Simple Users should log in to view additional resources, or for more information visit:
WHD Fact Sheet #73, Break Time for Nursing Mothers under the FLSA