Advance Auto Parts Denies Employee Accommodations for Lactation Breaks, Lawsuit Claims

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An Advance Auto Parts employee claims in a proposed collective action lawsuit that the company has denied her adequate break times or accommodations to pump breastmilk during work.

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The 35-page lawsuit alleges that the auto parts retailer has violated the federal Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (the PUMP Act), which was passed in December 2022 to expand the protections afforded by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) with respect to nursing accommodations for breastfeeding employees.

According to the case, the PUMP Act requires employers to give an employee a “reasonable break time” each time they need to pump and a space in which to do so that is “shielded from view,” at no risk of intrusion and, importantly, not a bathroom.

The suit charges that despite its obligations under federal law, Advance Auto Parts continuously fails to provide workers who are nursing sufficient break times and a proper, private space in which to express breastmilk during shifts.

The company’s failure to accommodate its nursing workers means the parents are “forced to pump breast milk in unsanitary stock rooms, bathrooms, or their private vehicles,” which can increase feelings of anxiety and stress and have a negative impact on their mental, physical and emotional well-being, the complaint claims.

The plaintiff, an employee at an Advanced Auto Parts Georgia location, gave birth to her child in April 2023, the filing says. When she returned to work, her branch manager told her that “she needed to work while pumping and that there was no physical space that would be made available to her to pump,” the lawsuit relays.

The woman was informed that she could only take breaks when other workers could cover for her, but staff limitations made it difficult for her to find time during shifts, the suit shares.

“When [the plaintiff] could take a break, she would go to the bathroom, attach her milk pump, and return to the floor and pump while she worked at her desk in the back, or even while she was assisting customers,” the case describes.

As the complaint tells it, the woman felt “dehumanized and humiliated” each time she had to help a customer while wearing a breast pump.

The filing argues that it would be “relatively easy” for the defendant to comply with the FLSA and PUMP Act. Per the lawsuit, the company could invest in portable lactation pods like the ones sold by companies such as Mamava, Brighter Booth and DayOne Baby, which are temporary and affordable, or simply provide employees access to clean offices with lockable doors.

“Instead of supporting breastfeeding mothers, Advance [Auto Parts’] practices forced those mothers into a Hobson’s choice between using demeaning, unsanitary spaces to express milk, abandoning pumping at work altogether, or quitting their jobs,” the suit contends. “Congress clearly declared in the PUMP Act that no mother should have to make such a choice.”

The lawsuit looks to represent any current or former non-executive employees of Advance Auto Parts who are or were lactating at any time since December 29, 2022 and who, upon request, were denied reasonable break times to pump breastmilk while at work in the year following their child’s birth or were denied a sanitary “functional space”—i.e., one that is shielded from view, free from intrusion, available when needed and not a bathroom—to express breastmilk.

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