Five cautions for employers.
An employer’s motion for summary judgment in a lactation accommodation case was denied this week, meaning that if the case doesn’t settle, it will go to trial.
And be aware that everything in this case happened before the latest federal laws governing in this area – the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act – were even enacted, much less in effect. So if you don't handle these requests right, it’s only going to get worse.
What happened
The employer provided workers at Pittsburgh International Airport to handle ticketing, boarding, disembarkation, and that kind of stuff for airlines that didn’t have enough of a presence to have their own ground crews on site.
She went out on maternity leave in March 2022 and returned to work part-time in late May 2022, when her baby was about two months old and still nursing.
Editorial aside: I would not be surprised if Maddie’s bosses were annoyed from the start that Maddie (probably) applied for the job knowing she was pregnant but didn’t disclose it until after she had started work. In other words, things between Maddie and her employer may have gone sour as soon as Maddie announced the pregnancy.
The work environment did not lend itself easily to “accommodation.” There was no private area nearby where Maddie could express milk during her shift. The employer did have a room with restricted access, but other employees had keys to the room, so even when Maddie locked the door, her...
False information has been circulating online claiming the retirement age will be increasing and it’s even been picked up by Google’s AI Overview and Discover service. There has been a spate of fa...