To my knowledge, no. Only a couple of states have any enforcement mechanism
for their workplace pumping statutes and those don't create private rights
of action. In California, for example, an employer can be fined under the
statute but only by the Commissioner of the state Department of Labor (who,
by the way, hasn't as of two months ago created a complaint filing
procedure ). I don't know of any published judicial decisions enforcing
state workplace pumping laws. Sadly, like the public breastfeeding laws,
most workplace pumping laws are written so that there is no way to enforce
them.
Also, you ask about the right to breastfeed (versus pump) in the workplace
and no state law protects that. Winning such a case is highly unlikely in
my view because it assumes that the child has the right to be in the
workplace which it generally does not.
The recent Currier case in Massachusetts does give me hope that it is
possible to win breastfeeding cases arguing protection under state
constitutions, so a suit concerning workplace pumping is certainly worth a
try if one can either find pro bono counsel or can afford to pay for it.
This is the way to go if one is going to bring a lawsuit, I think. Again
though, breastfeeding in the workplace which assumes a right to bring a
child into the workplace seems to me to be a legal long shot and politically
probably not worth doing.
Yours,
Jake Aryeh Marcus, J.D.
> Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 13:00:30 -0500
> From: Jeanette Panchula <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Lawsuits by employed breastfeeding mothers?
>
> Has there been a woman in the US (in states that have such statutes)
> who=20=
>
> has sued her employer and won a case related to being allowed to breastfe=
> ed=20
> in the workplace?
>
> Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC
> California, USA
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