Workers who want to return to the workplace after birth and recently want to pump their breast milk received improved legal protection when the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, signed a law according to which the employers provided paid lactation breaks and private locations on the construction site.
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The new law, which is known as “Charlotte's Law”, came into force on August 11, 2020 and eliminates the discretion of an employer as to whether the employees should allow employees or prohibit the time they need to pump breast milk at work.
How new state law works
Charlotte's law was inspired by a public school teacher in Georgia who wanted to pump breast milk during one of her planned breaks. However, a superior told her either would have to stop during the break or to stay after school to compensate for the time. The difficult choice triggered the state legislator to take measures to protect a woman's right to the pump and expression of breast milk in the workplace.
According to the new state law, an employer with one or more employees must offer a reasonable time every day for an appropriate interruption so that a working mother can express breast milk for a breastfeeding child (24 months or younger). So it can express the milk in privacy, the employer must provide a space or another place where (1) is not in a toilet and (2) in the immediate vicinity of its work area.
The requirement to offer a reasonable break for the pump of breast milk is in addition to the unpaid interruption time of an employee. However, the breastfeeding breaks can run with other breaks at the same time. In addition, employers must not deduct or reduce the content of an employee for the pumps for pumping breast milk.
Employers are also prohibited from discriminating against or avenging themselves against an employee because they pump breast milk or report against violations of the law. Significantly, the law delivers private measures for measures (or claims), including compensation, lawyer fees, registration fees and reasonable costs, which expressly contain the cost of discovery (pre -judicial facts of the fact) and the reproduction of documents for violations of the law.
Wider protection as a FLSA offers
The Charlottes law offers more comprehensive protection for silent working mothers than the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which has been changed by patient protection and the ACA (Affordable Care Act). The FLSA demands an adequate, unpaid break from covered employers, an employee who has to pump the breast milk for a nursing baby for up to one year after the child is born for a breastfeeding baby.
The FLSA in the changed version also requires employers to offer employees a place where the breast milk does not pump a bathroom, but is shielded from colleagues and the public before entering others. The breastfeeding protection of the law only applies to non -vision employees. In addition, employers with fewer than 50 employees do not have to comply with the law if this would lead to an inappropriate difficulty.
Ilene W. Berman is a lawyer at Taylor English Duma LLP in Atlanta. You can reach them at iberman@tayforenglish.com.
