(Image from www.blackbreastfeedingweek.org)
At WLP, our policy advocacy is informed by what we learn from Pennsylvanians about barriers they face while trying to be healthy and economically secure. We have represented pregnant and parenting people for many years, helping them navigate, challenge, and overcome workplace discrimination.
The widespread problem of pregnant and lactating workers facing discrimination in Pennsylvania is a legal challenge, but also a public health and economic justice issue. When pregnant people are being forced out of their jobs, they lose income at the moment they need it most. When lactating people are unjustly forced to stop breastfeeding, both moms and their infants are deprived of the health benefits of breastfeeding.
It is also a racial equity issue.
This week, in fact, is Black Breastfeeding Week, a time for advocates to call for greater protections and support for Black lactating parents in recognition of how such support can narrow maternal and infant health disparities. Black birthing people and Black babies experience worse outcomes than their white counterparts, and fewer than 60% of Black mothers have ever breastfed compared to 75% of white mothers. According to the CDC, increased breastfeeding could decrease infant mortality by as much as half. Additionally, breastfeeding has been shown to reduce risks of SIDS, asthma, Type II diabetes, and other illnesses disproportionately experienced by Black children.
Read on to learn more about what WLP attorneys Margaret Zhang and Sophia Elliott have learned from pregnant and parenting clients about the struggles they face after returning to work, and what you can do to support equality in the workplace and public health.
You counsel and represent lactating workers. What were or are the critical challenges for these workers before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and now?
WLP Margaret Zhang has been leading WLP’s representation of pregnant people throughout the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, many lactating workers struggled to obtain the workplace accommodations they needed to pump breast milk: a clean, private, secure, non-bathroom space to use, as well as short periods of break time for pumping. Even though employers who provide these accommodations save money by reducing employee turnover and sick days, many employers refused to give workers these simple adjustments. Even for employers who allowed lactating workers space or time to pump, often those employers would discourage or punish lactating workers for using those accommodations.
During the pandemic, many lactating workers experienced relief when they were able to work from home, which solved many of their breastfeeding or lactation needs. But essential workers still had to report to the workplace, where the same challenges persisted. And even when working from home, some workers who needed to breastfeed during videoconference calls reported being shamed or punished by their employers—which we believe violates laws, like the Pennsylvania Freedom to Breastfeed Act, that allow mothers to breastfeed their children wherever they and their children are allowed to be.
Now that more workers are returning to in-person work, we unfortunately expect that lactating workers may continue to face barriers and harassment for their lactation needs.
We’ve been sounding the alarm that state lawmakers have blocked a bill that would ensure workplace accommodations for lactating parents for the last 11 years. What kinds of scenarios do you see Pennsylvanians facing as a result of this effort to deprive Pennsylvanians of these protections?
WLP Attorney Sophia Elliot represents pregnant & lactating workers facing bias & discrimination in the workplace.
For some new parents, that means they will forgo breastfeeding altogether, because they know their decision to breastfeed may not be supported when they return to work. Both the parent and the child then lose the significant health benefits that breastfeeding can provide.
Although there is a national law (passed with the Affordable Care Act in 2010) that provides workplace lactation accommodations to some employees, that law has significant gaps. About forty-two percent of women in the workplace are not protected by that law.
Other new parents, who may not realize their employers will be resistant to their decision to breastfeed, will face humiliation and retaliation when they return to work. Denied space and time to breastfeed, these employees are at risk of painful engorgement and even infection. The devastating emotional effects are also worth mentioning: our clients express how they feel tremendous grief for being thwarted in their decision to breastfeed, which often mars their ability to enjoy their children’s first years.
Philadelphia does have a local law that protects all workers, but anyone who works elsewhere in Pennsylvania may not have the right to break time and private space for lactation needs.
Right, Philadelphia’s local ordinance was established in 2014. How does Philadelphia having this protection in place affect your ability to help clients facing lactation discrimination?
The Philadelphia law provides a crucial additional protection because, for Philadelphia employees, the law is clear: whenever it is not an undue hardship for the employer, employers must provide break time and private space for a lactating employee. The Philadelphia law has fewer qualifying criteria for employee coverage than the national law, making it easier for many lactating employees to exercise their rights. This clarity makes it much easier for employees to negotiate with their employers and get the accommodations they need—without the need for a lawyer’s intervention.
Tell us about a client scenario that sticks out to you.
Some of the toughest and most salient situations we encounter involve lactating employees who experience not only their employer’s failure to accommodate them, but also workplace hostility for lactating or pumping at work. One client of ours needed to pump at work because her infant could not take a bottle. This left our client with no choice but to pump at work to ensure her milk supply did not dwindle. Her child’s welfare depended on it. Still, the employer routinely made negative comments about the length of our client’s decision to breastfeed, and even encouraged our client to “force” her infant to take a bottle.
Similar unprofessional, hostile, and discriminatory conduct from employers is common. We hear stories of employers or coworkers who discarded an employee’s stored milk at work, or who made crude remarks or gestures to their employees about reasonable break time to pump.
In sum, our clients often face more than the denial of an accommodation to pump milk or breastfeed at work. In many cases, new parents—often already navigating the stressors of a growing family—are met with workplace hostility, pay discrimination, and other types of retaliation as well.
Too many Pennsylvania workers face additional, related challenges trying to stay healthy, and keep their infant healthy, after returning to work. What else can Pennsylvanians do to support family-friendly policies?
We recommend that you use your voice to ask for our lawmakers to pass laws that will support new parents.
Call your senators and representative in Congress and ask them to support the FAMILY Act (S. 248 / H.R. 804), which would provide paid family and medical leave, and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act (S. 1658 / H.R. 3110), which would extend workplace lactation accommodations to all lactating workers.
Likewise, to ask them to improve our state laws, call your senator and representative in the Pennsylvania state legislature and ask them to support the Pennsylvania Family Care Act (HB 1200 / SB 580) and the Pennsylvania Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act (HB 1739).
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond. As a non-profit organization, we can not do this work without you. Please consider supporting our work.
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August 2021: Our physical offices are still closed but we are OPEN and working to serve your needs. Contact us here.
