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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