On December 21, 2010, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a notice requesting information from the public regarding the recent amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) that requires employers to provide reasonable break time for nursing mothers to express milk. As reported in an earlier blog posting that can be found
here, this amendment, which was part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, became effective on March 23, 2010. The DOL seeks public comment about employer experiences administering and enforcing this new break time requirement.
Although the DOL communicated that it does not plan to issue regulations implementing this provision of the FLSA, the recent request for information provides some insight into how an employer can implement this new requirement. For example, the notice provides suggestions about finding a space shielded from view and free from intrusion in which a nursing mother can express milk and an explanation of what is a reasonable break time.
The Request for Information can be found here.
http://webapps.dol.gov/FederalRegister/HtmlDisplay.aspx?DocId=24540&Month=12&Year=2010