When I originally posted about the news that a workplace pumping requirement had been passed as part of the health care reform law, there were many questions and not many answers about how and when it would be implemented.
The U.S. Breastfeeding Committee has posted some answers on its website, and I'm excerpting some key ones here with permission. Please check back to their site for updates as more information becomes available.
What does the Reasonable Break Time for Nursing Mothers law do?
- Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(also known as Health Care Reform), states that employers shall provide
breastfeeding employees with “reasonable break time” and a private,
non-bathroom place to express breast milk during the workday, up until
the child’s first birthday.
- Employers are not required to
pay for time spent expressing milk, and employers of less than 50
employees shall not be required to provide the breaks if doing so would
cause “undue hardship” to their business.
- Download the text of Section 4207 only.
When does the law take effect?
- The law was effective immediately upon President Obama’s signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
however, the rules for enforcement have not yet been put in place.
Breastfeeding employees should be assured that the Department of Labor
is working swiftly to establish these rules, and should give their
employers time to comply once those rules take effect.
- While
the Department of Labor works to define terms and processes for
enforcement of the law, USBC stands ready to support employers and
breastfeeding employees with tools, information, and resources. View resources for employers and managers and resources for breastfeeding employees.
What do the time and space requirements in the new law mean?
- The Department of Labor will define terms used in the
law, such as “reasonable break time” and “significant difficulty or
expense.”
- An example of how the Department of Labor might interpret the law can be found in Oregon’s Rest Breaks for Breast Milk Expression
law, which served as the model for the federal law. In Oregon, the
Bureau of Labor and Industry Administrative Rules defined the time and
space provisions as follows... (see U.S. Breastfeeding Committee for more)
What about complaints, enforcements, penalties, and “undue hardship”?
- These are some of the important questions the Department
of Labor will be working to answer in the coming months. USBC and
Senator Merkley’s office will be closely monitoring and supporting this
process.
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