Your HR/Benefits department is going to have to take certain steps to comply with these new rules.
The Department of Labor (DOL) has released the rules employers will have to follow when it comes to providing breaks for nursing mothers to express breast milk. Some highlights of the nursing mothers rules include:
- Employers must provide a facility for women to take nursing breaks (bathrooms – even private ones – do not count)
- Employers aren’t required to pay for the break time. But, if a company already provides compensated breaks, and the employee uses that time to express milk, she must be paid in the same way as other workers, and
- Employers with 50 or fewer workers are exempt from the requirement — if compliance would “impose an undue hardship” on the company.
For the complete DOL Fact Sheet on the rules regarding nursing mothers, click here.
