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Breastfeeding Discrimination

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Heather728

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona

First of all my company is "supportive" of breastfeeding and provides me with the needed accomodations and breaks to pump as often as needed. However, my co workers are complaining to my manager that I am allegedly abusing this privledge by using pumping as an excuse to get out of doing my work and taking longer than needed to pump and rather than defending me or saying it was none of their business, my manager pulled me aside and brought these complaints to my attention and basically made me feel like crap.
Did my manager even have a right to pull me aside like this? Should she have attempted to verify the claims of misconduct before addressing me? or should she have just told the complaining employees that it is a confidentail HR matter? I feel like she enabled the complaints by entertaining them rather than telling them it was not their business and I know I am not abusing the privledge and I am well within my rights. I plan to discuss this matter wit HR tomorrow to see what can be done, because this isnt the first time this has happened. I used to work in another department with a diferent manager and the exact same thing happened then too. I refuse to compromise when I know I am doing nothing wrong and I refuse to tolerate being harassed and made uncomfortable about this any longer. What can I do and are there laws that protect me when it comes to harassment for breastfeeding?
 


OHRoadwarrior

Senior Member
Yes, she has a right to pull you aside. Her alternative is to make you clock out for these sessions and make up the time by staying late. If she is paying you for them, you should be appreciative. Complaining to HR, will probably have the result of what I just mentioned, where you are required to clock out.

BTW.... Way to go mom. Your baby will be all the better for it.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Did my manager even have a right to pull me aside like this? Of course. She has the right to discuss anything she wishes with you that involves or effects your job.

Should she have attempted to verify the claims of misconduct before addressing me? So you wanted your supervisor to hide behind doors and spy on you to time your comings and goings before talking to you? :confused:

What can I do and are there laws that protect me when it comes to harassment for breastfeeding? I guess you can tell your co-workers to shut the hell up and mind their own business but I doubt that's going to do anything to improve relations with them.

You can talk to HR if you wish to but candidly, I'd suggest you just go about your business and ignore your co-worker's complaints, assuming there isn't any validity to them. Your supervisor was just giving you a "heads up" that if you might be taking a bit more time than is necessary, you need to fix that. In the meantime, I don't think you'll be doing yourself any favors by turning this into a big magilla.
 

antrc170

Member
Not only can your supervisor pull you aside, but I think it was actually beneficial that he/she did so. Informing you of the complaints was a not something that your manager had to do.

Before you go to HR with any complaints I suggest talking with your manager about the situation. Explain that it takes x amount of time to properly handle your situation and you will keep any breaks to x amount of time. If it takes longer you agree to make up the time or inform your supervisor that your break ran long. This way you and your supervisor have an agreement about how long you are expected to be away from your duties. If the supervisor recieves more complaints he/she can monitor your break activity and if you are operating within your guidelines then there are no worries.
 

commentator

Senior Member
Though your company may say they are supportive, may have a policy that they are supportive, there is not any EEOC protection for nursing mothers. In a non union employer with no binding contractual policies you have no protection more than a non-nursing employee in an "at will" state.

And that means a company can if they want to legally terminate you at will for any reason, they do not have to give you special treatment while you are ill, or nursing, or pregnant, (other than FMLA) even if it is in their own company policies that they do so. You do not have any right to demand that anything happen the way you prefer on the job. You can "refuse to tolerate" and "refuse to be harrassed" all you want to. You have the right to quit the job. But that is the only legal right you have.

What you are wanting to do is dictate how the company deals with a complaint against you, wanting to see the people who have talked against you punished, wanting to insist that there be repercussions for the person even having dared to speak out and insinuate that you were doing something inappropriate. I strongly agree that you should be careful of your time, do your job, do not engage with the people you believe have complained against you, and it will be obvious they do not have a legitimate complaint.
 

commentator

Senior Member
I can see this, understand the requirements of the new guidelines. However, a designated space to pump milk or a reasonable break time to do it in (which may or may not be a paid break) does not put her in a protected category such she cannot be complained about and is above all restriction about how much time she can take or how she is to be treated, what can be said by others. If the employer feels that she is abusing her break privileges, or has received complaints that she is, they are fully within their rights to investigate this, to inform her that they have received these complaints, and to discuss the matter with her.
 
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swalsh411

Senior Member
How are you being "harrassed"?

-Your co-workers complained to your manager
-Somebody from HR asked you about it

Neither of those things are harrassment.

Your "refuse to compromise" position is not in your best interests. You sound like somebody who thinks your employer has to bend over backwards for you. They don't. They are required to provide reasonable accomodation. Sometimes that means you have to give a little to.
 

nextwife

Senior Member
Are you working equivilant extra time to make up for time away for pumping? Or are you just punching out and deducting that time?
 

tuffbrk

Senior Member
If I were you, I'd be far more concerned about the allegations that I am not completing my work (which is the actual complaint). That is the issue at hand. Whether your work is not getting done due to pumping, cruising the net or gossiping at the water cooler doesn't make a difference. You are expected to perform X tasks and apparently your co-workers do not believe that you are doing so. I'd encourage you to focus on, and address, the actual complaint that your co-workers lodged.

If you spent your entire lunch hour pumping, no one would care. Once someone has to pick up your slack - it's whole different ball game.
 

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