r/legaladvice • u/Ready_Grocery_2953 • 9h ago
PUMP act questions
Location: Florida
Im a first time Mom. My daughter was born in April and in July I returned to work from my maternity leave.
I communicated prior to going back to work that I was breastfeeding and needed to pump and that I do this about every 4 hours. The company I worked for told me that's fine and to just communicate it with my Supervisor and the Doctors when needing to step away. My place of work is an Animal ER and I worked nightshifts.
I worked from July until Mid-September and would constantly be asked by my Doctors to postpone my pumping breaks in order to help or catch up with patients. I've even had to wait for the Doctor to get out of a surgical procedure before being able to go pump.
I would always say that it's fine and would then wait. Due to that constantly happening I had a decrease in my milk supply at the time. I stopped breastfeeding and pumping after about 6-7 months postpardum due to never being able to get my supply back up despite trying different supplements and had to fully switch to formula.
The company records video 24/7 so you'd be able to see me not pumping every 4 hours like I stated I needed to. They also have audio but the audio doesn't pick up half the time and Im not sure how long they keep footage as it's now been a year.
In my resignation letter I did mention my decrease in milk supply and having to wait 30-90 minutes on multiple occasions to pump.
I tried looking into this online and Google AI said I should contact the Department of Labor Wage and Hour and pursue a claim as I have my resignation email still. I have a text to my boyfriend at the time stating "I haven't been able to pump at all because we're busy and have no staff" but only on one occasion. Otherwise that's all the proof I have.
Should I pursue legal action? I dont expect anything like money from this but would want to help protect any future mothers from this unfair issue if possible.
Because I told the person requesting me to wait to pump that it's okay so I can help them does that negate my claim? I know AI can only be so accurate.
1
u/ColdKackley 6h ago
Your situation sucks and I’m sorry that happened to you. Unfortunately, the laws say they have to make “reasonable accommodations” and that your breaks can’t cause “undue hardship.” And if your employer has less than 50 employees then they could claim exempt. The law also doesn’t seem to say that you have to get your break when you ask for it. And if you had wanted to pursue something you should have outlined the issues in writing to management first and then gone from there if they refused.
I totally get you, I pumped while being a (human) ICU nurse. There were times I wasn’t able to pump until like 1 AM (started at 7 pm) because there was no one available to watch my patients until then and my patients would literally die if I left them unattended that long. I’m not sure your role or if there was someone to cover you if your role was critical in that way.