What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ
So my wife has been struggling with breastfeeding our child since he was born. She is a nurse and like all nurses her working environment is very busy and understaffed. By law, she is given two breaks throughout the day to pump and this is very important for her to do in order to avoid giving our child formula. Her employer is known to fire people on whims and for petty reasons in general and since she has returned to work one of her coworkers has been complaining about her taking breaks. I am sure the management also does not enjoy her taking breaks and would love to see her stop breastfeeding altogether. This has happened to a friend of mine who works at a bank; she felt pressured by employers to stop taking the breaks and ended up giving the child formula.
Recently the manager of the nursing staff was fired and for those of you who don't know what that means for the nurses is that they now have no one to stand up for them against management. It is my opinion that this person was fired since she was siding with the nurses as it was her job to do instead of siding with management and "playing ball" with whatever they wanted. Now that she is gone we are worried that either her replacement or the current management will be pressuring her to stop pumping at work.
Obviously, this isn't an option for us and I told her to not take any harassment and that she needs to do what is best for our son. But we are now worried that she is walking on thin ice and that they will try to fire her for another reason since you legally cannot fire someone for pumping at work.
My question is whether there is anything we can do right now to prevent her from being fired or to start building our case in the event she is wrongfully fired.
So my wife has been struggling with breastfeeding our child since he was born. She is a nurse and like all nurses her working environment is very busy and understaffed. By law, she is given two breaks throughout the day to pump and this is very important for her to do in order to avoid giving our child formula. Her employer is known to fire people on whims and for petty reasons in general and since she has returned to work one of her coworkers has been complaining about her taking breaks. I am sure the management also does not enjoy her taking breaks and would love to see her stop breastfeeding altogether. This has happened to a friend of mine who works at a bank; she felt pressured by employers to stop taking the breaks and ended up giving the child formula.
Recently the manager of the nursing staff was fired and for those of you who don't know what that means for the nurses is that they now have no one to stand up for them against management. It is my opinion that this person was fired since she was siding with the nurses as it was her job to do instead of siding with management and "playing ball" with whatever they wanted. Now that she is gone we are worried that either her replacement or the current management will be pressuring her to stop pumping at work.
Obviously, this isn't an option for us and I told her to not take any harassment and that she needs to do what is best for our son. But we are now worried that she is walking on thin ice and that they will try to fire her for another reason since you legally cannot fire someone for pumping at work.
My question is whether there is anything we can do right now to prevent her from being fired or to start building our case in the event she is wrongfully fired.