We have written here before about the still relatively new Department of Labor rules providing that breastfeeding women must be provided with a private place – not a bathroom – to express milk for up to one year after childbirth. Because of the relative newness of these rules, and the fact that in small workplaces it can take some rearranging to comply, these obligations are not yet intuitive for some employers.
Last week a settlement between a former employee and a beauty salon was posted publicly by the Colorado American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which helped represent the employee in her claims that the salon did not comply with its obligations. The settlement included a financial settlement, the details of which are blocked out in the disclosure. A number of things affect the frequency with which various legal issues come to the fore, but certainly the presence of third party advocates looking for and publicizing test cases is likely to make this a more frequent issue for employers.
