The Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act, commonly known as the PUMP Act, was enacted in 2022 as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The law requires most employers to provide nursing employees with reasonable break time and a private space, other than a bathroom, to express breast milk for up to one year after a child’s birth.
Although the PUMP Act is relatively new, federal courts have already issued more than a dozen decisions involving the law. In several cases, employees have successfully moved past an employer’s attempt to dismiss their claims. Other cases have resulted in settlements or proceeded toward trial.
These decisions show that PUMP Act protections extend well beyond traditional office environments. For example, a cashier alleged that she was forced to pump breast milk behind her register. A police officer claimed that the pumping space she was offered was inadequate and contained a nearby bucket of a potentially hazardous substance. A restaurant employee alleged that she was given an office to pump, but that other employees could enter the room while she was using it. The courts allowed all three cases to proceed past the dismissal stage.
In another case involving a New York and New Jersey-area Port Authority maintenance employee, a federal judge allowed the employee’s claim concerning the privacy of her pumping space to proceed to a jury trial.
One of the most significant early PUMP Act decisions involved a Tennessee medical sonographer who was awarded more than $200,000 after a jury found that her employer retaliated against her for complaining about alleged PUMP Act violations. The employee claimed that supervisors repeatedly scheduled her to see patients during her designated pumping breaks and ultimately fired her after she objected.
The early cases also provide an important reminder that simply having a designated pumping area may not be enough. Employers should consider whether employees actually have reasonable opportunities to pump and whether the space provided is sufficiently private and accessible.