Want to Breastfeed Your Baby? You’re Fired!
Posted August 16th, 2011 by ACLUBy Galen Sherwin, ACLU Women’s Rights Project, and Rebecca T. Wallace, ACLU of Colorado
Imagine you’ve recently come back to work after maternity leave and you’re using every last minute of your break time to pump breast milk to feed your baby at home. You just need a little help from your employer — an extra 20 minutes a few times a week. But your employer refuses to help, and tells you that, instead of breastfeeding your baby, you should consider switching to feeding him formula. Worse yet — imagine that after you complain, you’re fired.
That’s exactly what happened to Heather Burgbacher, a technology teacher and coordinator at Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen, in Evergreen, Colorado.
Heather had taught at the school for almost five years, and had an excellent job performance record. She had pumped breast milk at work after a previous pregnancy with no need to miss any classroom time. (We should mention that women who choose to breastfeed have to pump regularly throughout the day in order to continue producing breast milk if they are away from their babies).
However, when Heather’s second child was born, her back-to-back class schedule required her to miss 10 minutes at either end of her short break-time, at the end of one class and the beginning of the next. During that time, she had arranged for another teacher to supervise her students while they completed classroom assignments. This arrangement had been going on without incident for several months, when she was suddenly told by a supervisor that it was no longer working. Her supervisor told her to rearrange her pumping schedule, and when she informed the supervisor that she could not physically do that, she was advised to consider switching her baby to formula.
Heather did what you would hope she would do. She told her employer that she had a right to pump at work. And what was her employer’s response? Heather was terminated, not because of any performance issues, but because of the "conflict" she had caused over her need to pump at work.
What the school did was illegal. Yesterday, the ACLU took legal action to hold it accountable. Colorado state law explicitly protects women’s right to express breast milk at work and requires employers to make this type of reasonable accommodation. And antidiscrimination laws make it illegal to fire a woman on the basis of sex, including for reasons that are related to pregnancy and childbirth — like breastfeeding. A little-known section of the Affordable Care And Patient Protection Act — the new health care reform law — also protects nursing moms who are hourly workers, though that law does not apply in Heather’s case.
These laws not only recognize the now well-known public health benefits of promoting breastfeeding, but also that our workplace policies need to make it easier — not more difficult — for moms who want (or simply need) to return to the paid workforce after having kids. That’s a necessary ingredient for women’s equality in the workplace.
Heather and her husband made the personal decision to feed their babies breast milk for the children’s first year because they believed strongly that that was what was best for their babies. Moms who work outside the home should not have to choose between their jobs and their ability to provide this benefit to their children. And employers certainly should have no say in such a personal decision.
6 Comments
December 31, 2012 at 7:44 pm by AmyI made the decision to breastfeed my son for at least a year because it is healthiest for the baby. At a few weeks of age I tried offering a bottle of pumped breastmilk and he refused the bottle. We tried every day (trying 9 different types and sizes of bottles and nipples, trying different people offering, etc) and he simply refused anything except the breast. As my maternity leave neared an end I contacted my direct supervisor as well as our HR department to explain my situation and asked if I could take an (unpaid) extended leave of absence, or work from home, or work on a project basis, etc (I was open to any arrangement that allowed me to keep my employment). I was given 2 additional weeks of maternity leave and continued pumping and to attempt bottle feeding. At the end of the two weeks I notified HR again that I couldn’t leave my baby because he would not accept a bottle. I again suggested either an unpaid leave or suggested that I could get a babysitter so I could work from home (with breaks to breastfeed as needed) but was told if I didn’t return to work the following day that I would be terminated. (I should note that other employees had work from home arrangements because they had long commutes.) I was terminated the next day. The company maintains that I quit my job and even prevented me from collecting unemployment benefits because they claimed it was my decision to quit.
Is what they did legal? If not, what recourse do I have, if any? Any suggestions pointing me in the right direction are appreciated!
Amy
amyella@gmail.com
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September 1, 2011 at 2:08 am by GaI wonder why no one is talking about defending moms who are breastfeeding in divorce courts and “requiring” break time for breastfeeding babies during other parent’s visitation. You would think that judges, GALs and fathers are wanting it, too, in the best interest of the baby — but in reality in many many cases that is not the fact and moms are told to switch to formula, introduce formula, pump more or just start pumping (regardless of whether it is physically possible or not).
And how about moms in the military? Federal government is protecting federal employees but is not protecting those who serve. Moms are deployed and have to fight to postpone deployment from several weeks postpartum to 6 months. Still – deploying breastfeeding mom of a 6 months old to Afghanistan is going to put a stop on the breastfeeding. Why cannot the country be a little more appreciative of the job those women do in the army and as the mothers, and let them do both without sacrificing their child’s health?!?
If there is a call for action to support breastfeeding should not it cover all aspects of life?
What is happening is very sad.
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August 17, 2011 at 8:56 pm by ChrisAppreciate the ACLU for sticking up for moms. But then I read an article from Todd Starnes about the ACLU filing a lawsuit to keep sex offenders in a house that is next door to a day care center and wonder, are we dancing with the devil? How could the ACLU EVER justify a lawsuit that protects committed sex offenders’ rights to live next door to a daycare center? How can working moms have any sense of safety and security for their kids in daycare centers when sex offenders can target and live next to these centers? This is all messed up!
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August 17, 2011 at 4:49 pm by JulieHelp! I am a teacher in a local public school system. I want to be able to breastfeed my newborn when I return to the classroom this fall, but it turns out that “teachers” aren’t covered under the new healthcare law. Why? Could someone please explain. I feel like I am being discriminated against just for being a teacher. What can I do so that I can keep up my milk supply while I am at home?
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Ashley Boyd Reply:
August 17th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
@Julie, Teachers aren’t specifically excluded from the protections of the health reform’s “Break Time for Nursing Mothers” rule. At this point, the guaranteed, unpaid breaks under these new rules only cover non-exempt (usually hourly workers) and federal employees. The newly-introduced Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2011 would expand the rules to cover all workers (like you and your colleagues) if it passes. The best advice for you is to approach your boss early to identify your expected needs and troubleshoot together. Here are some good resources to learn more about the above: http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/ and http://merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=b6845e21-223a-460e-9f18-02bb8b32b383
Good luck!! Ashley
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Anna Reply:
September 1st, 2011 at 9:32 am
@Ashley Boyd, It is also worth noting that some states have laws that protect a nursing mom’s right to pump in the workplace. New York is one- employers must provide a space for pumping (not a bathroom) and unpaid time in which to do it, for up to 3 yrs after the birth of a child. So, Julie, even though you may not be covered by the new healthcare law (WHY would they cover only non-exempt employees???), you should check with your state to see if there is a law that provides you with this right. If not, there is plenty of information about why nursing/pumping is better for employees and employers (less time missed due to illness, etc.). Good luck!
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