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Nursing Mother Rights?
Tomorrow I'm doing an all day training session on base at Quantico. My company is the sub to another, and I contacted them to see if it was okay if I call the client directly to make arrangements for me to pump, or if they'd like to.
My contact just told me that asking them was "inappropriate" and that if I "feel I really have to excuse myself" that I could use the restrooms.
WTF.
Do I really not have any rights here? Everything I'm reading regarding laws and employers being required to provide time and space seems to apply to companies with over 50 employees. Which mine does. But since my company won this work UNDER another company, and we're all contractors to the Marine Corp...am I just in some tricky gray area? I suspect I'll have more sessions on base this year, so I'd really like to establish some sort of standard.
I've already elevated this to my company's HR, to see what the politics are as far as pushing on the company, I'm just shocked that they weren't even willing to try to ask on my behalf, and made it sound like breastfeeding is a bad thing.
Because being a mom and pumping/breastfeeding isn't already hard enough...gahhh.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Nursing Mother Rights?
Who you work for and where is irrelevant, you have a right to pump. period. !!
Perhaps the person has no idea what the laws are and feels really uncomfortable bringing up this topic.
I would contact your POC at Quantico and ask them directly. They may even have a mother's room (or several) there.
Contact person is at the company we are a sub to. He has three kids, so I would have thought he'd be a little more sensitive to my needs.
My company doesn't want to rock the boat, and is asking me to just please do as they suggest and pump in the bathroom. They forsee lots of opportunities of working with this company, and don't want to be difficult.
I guess I just don't see how I'm being difficult. I feel like there must surely be many options for me at Quantico - that base is huge. And client there (Marine Corp Rep) is a woman, so surely she must be familiar with the process and wouldn't think "pumping = breasts = how inappropriate!"
Unfortunately, I am being told that since we are a sub, we are never to contact the client directly, and I'm supposed to always go through this other company that is our prime - they being the ones that are uncomfortable by this. So their discomfort is pretty much halting me even finding out what options are possible.
I think I'm just going to have to tell my company I'm not traveling on site anymore if more reasonable accommodations aren't possible.
This is the kind of situation where you send the link to the DOL fact sheet to your contact and their supervisor: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs73.htm
I'm furious on your behalf. I am certain that Quantico has lactation rooms, and that the contact there would not be uncomfortable answering that question.
And here is info on Virginia law:
Virginia
Va. Code ? 2.2-1147.1 (2002) guarantees a woman the right to breastfeed her child on any property owned, leased or controlled by the state. The bill also stipulates that childbirth and related medical conditions specified in the Virginia Human Rights Act include activities of lactation, including breastfeeding and expression of milk by a mother for her child. (HB 1264)
Va. Code Ann. ? 8.01-341.1 (2005) provides that a mother who is breastfeeding a child may be exempted from jury duty upon her request. The mother need not be "necessarily and personally responsible for a child or children 16 years of age or younger requiring continuous care during normal court hours." (2005 Chap. 195, HB 2708)
Va. Code Ann. ? 18.2-387 (1994) exempts mothers engaged in breastfeeding from indecent exposure laws.
Va. House Joint Resolution 145 (2002) encourages employers to recognize the benefits of breastfeeding and to provide unpaid break time and appropriate space for employees to breastfeed or express milk.
But I'm sure that because it's Quantico, the federal law would supersede the state law anyway.
This is actually a really good idea, I'm going to investigate this option. Thanks!!
And mssaint, thanks for the links to laws and DOL fact sheet - those were what I was poring over, but good to understand the difference between Federal/State. I was also pleased to see that mothers in VA are exempt from indecent exposure on there. I deal with BF discrimination at home every day - it horrifies DH that I do it in public (with a cover) and I'll have to share that with him.
I totally feel for you - I used to have to go to client sites and work through other contractors to get access to a place to pump. I found it really hard to find the appropriate contacts to ask - I ended up pumping in the car several times.
I posted a similar question a few months ago and people suggested looking for the HR Contact or the "Health Unit" at the agency or facility. The facility I was at was a shared building and had a health unit for the agency I wasn't working with. The lady at the health unit was super nice though and let me use it twice that day even though it was supposed to only be for agency employees and it wasn't even the agency I was contracted to.
You might try to remind them that it isn't something that would be nice for you to be able to do - but it would cause you physical pain not to pump! I'm not sure how feasible it is, but could you say that unless you have a private space to pump you aren't going to be able to go on-site?
What an outrageous answer! I'm sorry. It sounds like that guy is clueless about the law. I hope that you can educate him (or have his supervisor do so).
Let us know how it all shakes out, and I hope you have a great training day.
More Green For Less Green
Quantico probably has several places where you can pump. I work for another big agency and we have a nurse's station with a mother's room that any nursing mother can use - an employee, a contractor, a visitor, any woman in the building who needs a place to nurse or pump. Even if my BFF just came to meet me for lunch & wanted to pump before heading back to her office, she'd be allowed to use it. That's how it works. I can't imagine that Quantico isn't equally as accomodating.
Maybe once you're onsite, whoever welcomes you (an HR person, a lower level staff, whomever), can tell you where the mother's room is. You shouldn't need special approval ahead of time to use it, you should be able to just show up, explain who you are, and get a key.