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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which was signed into law this past March, included a provision allowing reasonable break time for nursing mothers in the workplace. Under the new law, 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 Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has released a fact sheet detailing legal requirements of this provision. It clarifies that:
Only employees who are not exempt from the FLSA’s overtime pay requirements are entitled to breaks to express milk.
For purposes of the “undue hardship” exemption, all employees are counted, regardless of worksite, for purposes of determining whether the employer has 50 employees or less.
If an employee is otherwise entitled to compensated break time, if she uses that time to express milk, it remains compensated break time.
DOL is expected to address what is a reasonable time, what is an appropriate space, and similar issues in future guidance. CUPA-HR will monitor the issue and provide additional guidance as it becomes available.
Posted Tuesday, July 20th 2010 at 11:10AM
by: Elynor Moss
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