As I blogged about earlier last month, the DOL issued amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act that significantly expanded the obligations to provide lactation accommodations and other protections for nursing mothers (the Providing Urgent Material Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act). Briefly, employers must provide reasonable break time as needed and a private place, other than a bathroom, for nursing mothers to express breast milk for one year following a child’s birth. The new law exempts small employers for whom compliance would impose an undue hardship.
The DOL is now educating employees about these new protections afforded by the PUMP Act with a slew of resources and materials just released on its webpage including fact sheets and guidance documents for employees who are nursing, and their employers.