Working moms breastfeeding scene

working moms breastfeeding

Breastfeeding moms face pressure at work in the United States

A HuffPost investigation reveals that employees are being confined to dirty bathrooms because they are trying to pump their breast milk.

UNITED STATES - In 2015, a Walmart employee returned to work in Carson City, Nevada, after her maternity leave ended, with an electric breast pump to breastfeed her newborn. Walmart was legally required to provide her with a private space and adequate breaks to pump. But the disaster that unfolded over the next few weeks illustrates the many challenges breastfeeding mothers face in the workplace.

Management initially told her she had to pump in the store’s dressing rooms, where there was no outlet, so she couldn’t plug in her pump. She was denied the use of an extension cord because it would trip people over it.

So she ended up pumping in the employee training room. The law says the space must be “protected from intrusion,” but she said managers and employees had repeatedly entered while her chest was exposed. They had even held meetings in her presence. So management assigned her a squalid room next to the electrical room, with a sign on the door warning of a power surge.

Her superiors then had the bright idea of ​​providing her with a manual pump, to use in the fitting room. But as her body was used to the electric pump, her milk production dropped drastically and was no longer enough to satisfy her baby. After seeing her cry, her colleagues chipped in to buy her the formula milk that she clearly couldn’t afford.

The formula milk made the baby sick, so her mother had to switch to a special version for sensitive babies. She was eligible for financial assistance through Nevada’s Women, Children and Newborns (WIC) program, which is designed for low-income families, but she was told she had to return the free electric pump she had received from the same program (a WIC spokesperson clarified that mothers are asked to return pumps they no longer use, but their benefits are not taken away if they don’t).

Walmart eventually installed an electrical outlet, but after two months, a third of the ideal breastfeeding time according to doctors, it was too late. She had given up breastfeeding and was now only feeding her baby formula.

The Walmart employee’s story is one of 376 investigations HuffPost was able to see through a federal records request. The Department of Labor is responsible for enforcing the Affordable Care Act (also known as “Obamacare”), and employers like Walmart are required to accommodate employees who want to pump. HuffPost, searching for cases of potential violations of the law, received investigations from across the country from 2010 to 2018. Redacted of the employees’ names and other identifying characteristics, the records reveal the kinds of challenges new mothers face.

The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages breastfeeding as the best start for both babies and mothers. The proportion of children who breastfeed increased from 73.8% in 2004 to 83.2% in 2015. American doctors also encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies for six months, then continue sporadically for a year or more. But the reality is that in the United States, where paid leave is not legally guaranteed, many mothers return to work just two weeks after giving birth. Those who want to breastfeed must therefore pump two to three times a day, and for as long as it takes to completely empty their breasts, which is between 15 and 30 minutes.

Department of Labor reports make clear that many companies are still violating a law designed to protect a mother’s right to pump at work, including those that pride themselves on being considerate of mothers’ needs. Of the cases obtained by HuffPost, 255 reported a violation (68% of the total). In just over half of the cases, employers violated their obligation to provide an appropriate space for pumping milk. In about a third of the cases, they failed to comply with their obligation to provide adequate break time. In nearly one in five cases, employers failed to comply with either provision. The vast majority of investigations were launched following a complaint filed by an employee.

Employers broke the law in 68 percent of the cases reviewed by HuffPost.

The obstacles faced by mothers who want to pump at work have taken a financial, emotional and physical toll on many women. HuffPost identified five cases in which employees suffered from mastitis, a painful inflammation that can be accompanied by swelling, burning, fever and chills. Mastitis occurs when the breasts become engorged and cannot be regularly emptied. For example, a bakery employee had an infection but didn’t speak out for fear of losing her job. This concern is present in many cases.

In 22 cases, employers illegally retaliated against employees who stood up for their rights, including one at the Carson City Walmart. The woman who filed the complaint says she was no longer allowed to take a lunch break when she started pumping, and she was also not allowed to do so during work hours, even though one of her co-workers was allowed to. Ultimately, Walmart agreed to pay her back pay of $217.

Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said the company has a policy in place to ensure employees are able to pump.

“This incident happened over four years ago and our associate received her full back pay,” Hargrove said. “Mothers who want to breastfeed are welcome in our stores and we have taken steps to accommodate them as associates and customers. We are committed to following the law and if something is wrong, we want to know about it so we can fix it as quickly as possible.”

There have been many other, less egregious, cases that have had similar failings, particularly in low-wage industries like restaurants and retail, where employees struggle to have a clean, private space to pump. Most of them are relegated to toilets, sometimes even public ones, even though the law explicitly states that these are unacceptable because they are unsanitary.

The investigator in the case noted that in addition to the financial impact on the family, the baby suffered from the switch to formula. According to the investigator, Walmart should, as “fair compensation,” refund the woman for the formula she paid for out of pocket since she “would not have had to buy it” if the company had complied with the law.

Other women are sent to their manager’s office or to an unlocked meeting room where they are regularly disturbed. Most pump under surveillance cameras. In two separate cases, restaurant employees were asked to pump behind the bread bins, where they were partially exposed to co-workers and customers.

Those who are allowed a suitable location often lack the time needed to fully empty their breasts. One McDonald’s employee was reprimanded and forced to return to work before she finished. Another at Family Dollar asked for extra time to pump, which resulted in her being demoted to part-time. A spa employee was required to sign a paper stating she would no longer take breaks. Because she was unable to pump, her breasts leaked while she worked.

Five women told investigators they had suffered from mastitis.

The breastfeeding law was one of the few areas of common ground between Democrats and Republicans. Anti-abortion conservatives who had denounced the historic health care reform enacted by Barack Obama’s administration in 2010 joined their left-wing colleagues in supporting the breastfeeding provisions. The idea was simple: If a mother wants to breastfeed, she should be able to continue earning a living.

Until the child is 12 months old, the employer is required to provide his employee with a place out of sight as well as “a reasonable break” allowing her to express her milk, knowing that the reasonableness, not defined, varies from one woman to another. The employer does not have to pay his employee during this time, unless this break is normally paid. Companies with fewer than 50 employees are not subject to the law if they demonstrate that it would cause “undue hardship”.

Analysis of the files of the Ministry of Labor shows, in general, an increase in the number of cases involving breastfeeding mothers, perhaps because they are more aware of their rights and are now filing complaints. Of the cases revealed, only 42 were investigated in 2011, the year the law was promulgated. In 2017, there were more than 70.

Complaints filed by employees were primarily aimed at retail, which accounted for more than one in five investigations. Major industry names implicated in these cases include BestBuy, JCPenney, Dollar General, Lowes, Toys R Us, Costco and Kroger. Walmart is the private company with the highest number of violations of the law (six), but it is also the largest private sector employer in the United States, with 1.5 million employees.

Studies have shown that babies from low-income households are less likely to be breastfed. Research shows why: Not only do low-wage women have to return to work quickly after giving birth, many have trouble getting breaks from their employers to pump.

A worker at a Family Dollar in Scranton, Pennsylvania, asked for just one break each day to pump. She was denied. She “spent most of her time working alone and had no co-workers to cover for her break,” the investigator said. When she did get one, she had to pump in a storage room where a salesperson and a co-worker were walking around. Family Dollar declined to comment on the case, citing employee privacy concerns.

An employee at the Jared Vault jewelry store in Oklahoma City who was denied a private place to pump had no choice but to quit her job and go home every time she had to pump. The arrangement was not only inconvenient, it cost her a portion of her pay. Another employee at a cosmetics store in Miami was told she had to use a public restroom, where the lack of privacy and constant coming and going made it difficult. Her increasingly deteriorating interactions with her boss and the mall manager eventually discouraged her from breastfeeding. “She pumped less and less” until she finally gave up, the lawsuit states. The woman filed a lawsuit against her employer “to prevent anyone else from having to go through this.”

Restaurants account for more than 10% of the cases, ranging from small establishments to large chains like McDonald’s, Subway, Olive Garden, Cracker Barrel and Buffalo Wild Wings. An Outback Steakhouse was cited for failing to provide an employee with a safe space from co-workers in 2017. The investigator found that the parent company, Bloomin’ Brands, had no specific policy on the matter, even though the law went into effect nearly seven years ago. The company did not respond to our questions.

One employee had to resort to public restrooms.

In a number of restaurant cases, women who asked for a break to pump have been told that there was no one to replace them. Managers at two IHOPs broke the law by denying their waitresses a break. One in Oklahoma said her manager refused to give her even a few minutes of break and curtly dismissed her with “not now” or “later.” She eventually developed mastitis.

Another IHOP employee in Arkansas told her boss upon returning to work that she needed about 15 minutes every two hours to pump. Over the next 20 days, she was given only two breaks, behind the bread bins. Her bosses told her that no one could replace her, especially on weekends. She soon gave up breastfeeding. A representative for the chain clarified that the two restaurants in violation were operated by franchisees.

Breastfeeding protections apply only to employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (the same ones who benefit from mandatory overtime protections), effectively excluding managers, some employees, and entire categories of workers. The protections therefore apply primarily to hourly employees. Women earning more than $23,660 a year and performing certain duties are not covered by the law. Many managers face the same challenges as retail employees, although they are not found in the Department of Labor surveys.

Although the cases studied are oriented toward low-income jobs, hospitals and care centers, with 62 of the 376 cases, were the subject of the largest number of complaints, after retail. Nurses may be more aware of the law and more willing to file complaints, but they have just as much trouble getting breaks. Even hospitals that are supposed to be mother-friendly because of their lactation services do not give their employees the time they need to pump.

One investigator reported that nurses at Bellevue Hospital in Washington state were unable to find the time “because of the nature of their work.” One employee ended up with mastitis. A study at a Michigan hospital found that nurses spent most of their 15-minute breaks going back and forth to the lactation room on a different floor, leaving them with only five minutes to pump. One nurse described pumping at work as a “constant struggle.” Nineteen other cases were linked to nursing and home health practices.

More than 40 cases involved government employees. With eight cases, the Postal Service holds the record for the most violations of any public sector employer. The agency has a workforce of half a million, many of whom have union protections that others do not, which may make them more likely to file complaints.

A postal worker in Southern California who was not given enough breaks had to sneak her breasts into the bathroom because her breasts hurt so much. Without a clean, adequate place to do so, she made her sit on the floor of the locker room. Her supervisor suspended her for seven days for taking too many breaks. The Department of Labor concluded that the disciplinary action was unlawful retaliation. The Postal Service removed it from the employee’s file.

One waitress was forced to pump in a storage room.

A Postal Service official said the agency wouldn’t comment on individual cases but took “the Department of Labor’s guidance” on the breastfeeding law “very seriously.”

Public sector employees keep popping up in the reports. A Detroit Department of Water and Sewerage official asked a field employee to pump in a McDonald’s restroom. Another employee with the Indiana Department of Transportation didn’t get enough break time from her boss to pump and was eventually fired for being absent without leave. After investigating, the Department of Labor negotiated her reinstatement. She is owed more than $26,000 in back pay.

An employee of a government contractor in Oklahoma said her manager insulted her by timing her while she pumped in the pumping room. She also threatened retaliation if she did not stop pumping after four months, even though the employee stayed late to make up for breaks. She eventually developed mastitis. The case file states that her boss asked her why she continued to breastfeed if she had an infection.

In many cases, middle managers were apparently unaware of the breastfeeding policies in place. Some readily acknowledged that they were unaware of the law. Others were aware of their obligations but were unwilling to take steps to accommodate the employee’s needs. Sometimes, the employer made efforts to help the employee pump, but did not go so far as to comply with the law.

At Boeing, the breastfeeding program at the Everett, Washington, plant allowed mothers to sign up on the company website to reserve a room to pump. Each room was equipped with a lock, a chair, and a refrigerator to store milk. The problem was that workers faced high demand: 20 women for a limited number of rooms. The one who filed the complaint said she couldn’t pump when she needed to.

A Boeing representative said the company doubled the plant’s capacity for breastfeeding mothers after the complaint. Because of the long commute some employees have to travel to the breastfeeding room, the company is piloting a program in which a mobile breastfeeding pod will travel to them. The company is also offering nursing mothers who travel for work the option of having their milk shipped home at the company’s expense.

Other employers were less forthcoming when investigators showed up. An employee at furniture maker Polywood in Syracuse, Indiana, testified that she was told to pump during her 15-minute breaks and lunch break, which wasn’t enough, and to do it in the women’s restroom.

When the Labor Department investigator explained the law to them, company officials acknowledged they had failed to comply. One asked if the employer was really “at the mercy of any nursing mother.”

The Polywood manager declined to respond to our interview requests.

In 22 cases, managers illegally took action against women

In reality, the violations investigators found likely reflect only a small fraction of the times women have been prevented from pumping at work, with one problem being that many employees don’t benefit from these protections because they don’t fall under the law’s scope, experts say.

Some states have enacted their own, broader laws that cover employees excluded from the federal law. And there are still big gaps. The Center for WorkLife Law, a research group at the University of California Hastings College of Law, estimates that 27.6 million women of childbearing age are legally entitled neither to a space to pump at work nor to a break to do so. If one of them were to file a complaint, federal investigators would be unable to do much for her.

Another problem is that women have so little to gain from launching an investigation. It’s nearly impossible for employees who report their bosses to remain anonymous: Everyone knows the new mother, which leaves them open to retaliation. Women must weigh their desire to breastfeed against their relationship with their boss, their hopes for promotion, and even their job.

Many women don’t report their bosses until after they’ve left the company. For example, a Sunglass Hut employee in Indiana struggled to get pumping breaks at the mall. Investigators say she filed the complaint “solely to remind her employer of the law.”

There’s usually no financial incentive to file a complaint, though companies may have to pay back pay after firing an employee, reducing her hours, or withholding paid breaks from her pay. That’s what a Wawa grocery store in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, had to do when it had to reinstate a fired nursing mother and pay her nearly $5,000. Most employees rarely get anything more than a settlement under federal law.

Liz Morris, deputy director of the Center for WorkLife Law, would like to see companies that break the law be ordered to pay damages. “As it stands, sometimes there’s no financial consequence for an employer that flouts the law,” she says. “I think that’s the main problem.”

Some women have decided to sue under the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The law itself does not explicitly address pumping, but in recent years, federal appeals courts have ruled that discrimination against breastfeeding is a violation of the law. Unlike complaints filed by nursing mothers, a trial is likely to result in a major decision or jury verdict. But the settlements required are far from clear-cut.

A worker was suspended for seven days for taking too many breaks

Lawmakers need to address the weaknesses in the federal law on nursing mothers, said Galen Sherwin, a women’s rights attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. In addition to expanding the law, she said, Congress should require employers to post posters in their workplaces to better publicize the law. There are certainly a lot of women who don’t file complaints because they don’t know they can.

“There’s a push right now, on both the Democratic and Republican sides, to think about how to improve conditions for working mothers,” she said. “There could be real momentum in that direction.”

For now, the law relies on women knowing their rights and being willing to fight. After a complaint was filed against Paula’s Pancake House in Solvang, California, an investigator found that five breastfeeding employees were denied any legally mandated benefits. According to one employee, managers considered the breaks “a burden on the restaurant” and that there was no point in the employees coming back to work “unless they’re no longer breastfeeding.” Another said managers rolled their eyes in annoyance at their requests for breaks.

One employee told the investigator she had mastitis. Another decided to pump despite the lack of a dedicated area, facing a wall at the back of the restaurant to try to find shelter. According to the case file, her colleagues covered their eyes when they had to walk past her to get groceries.

The manager of these restaurants, Daniel Greenwald, claimed he was unaware of the details of the Labor Department’s findings until HuffPost reported them to him. He suggested the employees had made up her statements. He also said the restaurant had fired the manager who was accused. “That’s in the past, that’s settled. (...) We’ve moved on,” he concluded.

The investigator in charge of the case described the restaurant as a “hostile environment” where fear and retaliation reign. Yet only one of these women was awarded financial compensation because her boss moved her to a section of the restaurant where she earned less in tips. She received $333 in back pay.

The other women had to hope that next time, he would follow the law.