Break for Nursing Mother

5195043

We have an employee that had a child in February. When she returned to work in April, she stated that her child would not take a bottle. Arraingments where made to have the father bring the child to work on her breaks for her to feed (she gets two breaks a day based on her work schedule).

Her breaks have now become 40-45 minutes in length twice a day. Is this reasonable? The child is 6 months old at this point. What is considered reasonable? I know everyone and child is different, but nursing for 40 minutes seems excessive.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheryl S SPHR

It would seem reasonable to me that you allow her the typical break time as you give other employees. Any time she takes over that can be made up by her (short lunch, come early, stay late) or deducted as vacation leave. I do not believe there is anything that requires you to give her more time that you would give others. I do applaud you for accommodating her and think you and she both need to set some reasonable boundaries.

FunHRBanker

I agree with Cheryl. You would have to allow her to pump for up to a year after the child was born, but how you accommodate the breaks is up to your policies.

cnghr

I agree with the others. You should be able to accommodate breastfeeding within your normal break policies.

We had the same situation a couple of years ago: dad would bring the baby to mom twice a day on her breaks and the location she worked at allowed her to use the employee breakroom and put a "do not disturb" sign on the door during her breaks. She started out with 15 - 20 minutes, then it went to 30 minutes, and then up to about 45 minutes per break. Not only was it cutting into time she should have been working and causing inconvenience in that respect, but the restroom could only be accessed by going through the breakroom so the rest of the employees couldn't get to the bathroom if they needed it!

When the manager asked me for advice, I told her that accommodating a breastfeeding (or pumping) mother did not mean that she couldn't require that she do it within our normal break policy. Fortunately, when she approached the employee, the employee understood and complied and that was the end of the issue.

Celeste Blackburn SPHR

Once again, the forum members have come through with great advice. Our [I]HR HeroLine[/I] article today is about nursing mothers' privacy rights. Employment law attorney Jeff Hurt addresses many aspects of the the law, including break length and when the breaks can become an "undue hardship."

You can read the article at[URL="http://www.hrhero.com/hl/articles/2013/08/14/nursing-mothers-have-privacy-rights/"] http://www.hrhero.com/hl/articles/2013/08/14/nursing-mothers-have-privacy-rights/[/URL]


Hope this helps!

Celeste

5195043

Thank you for the input. We are going to talke with this employee as she was in our office turning in paperwork during the time she says she is nursing. So we know the whole time she is away from work is not to nurse.