Class Action Claims Philadelphia Police Officers Denied Accommodations for Lactation Breaks

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A proposed collective action claims nursing female police officers in Philadelphia are not provided with reasonable breaks and a private, sanitary place in which they can express breast milk for their nursing children.

The lawsuit out of Pennsylvania explains that under federal law, employers must provide employees who are nursing with both “reasonable break time” to express breast milk for their nursing children for one year after a child’s birth and a private place, other than a bathroom, that is “shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public.” According to the case, the city of Philadelphia has failed to provide such accommodations for nursing police officers and instead forces the employees to pump at “irregular times or not at all.”

As the plaintiff tells it, although she and another nursing female officer notified their superior of their need to express breast milk at work, they were not apprised of their right to do so nor provided with a private space in which they could pump as needed. According to the complaint, the officers were bumped from office to office and were frequently interrupted while they were pumping. The plaintiff says she and her coworker were told they could use another coworker’s office to pump but had to retrieve from their male superior’s office a privacy sign indicating the office was in use. The women allege they were then forced to return the sign to the superior’s office, where three male officers worked, after each time they were finished pumping, which they found to be “extremely demeaning.” The plaintiff says she and her coworker complained to their superior about this “uncomfortable” procedure yet were never provided with keys to the office nor a permanent sign as promised.

According to the case, the Philadelphia Police Department has no lactation policy in place to provide nursing female officers with the required accommodations and educate all staff about the importance of respecting their privacy and providing coverage during lactation breaks. The lawsuit alleges that none of Philadelphia’s 21 police districts provide accommodations for nursing mothers. Instead, the case says, officers are forced to stop pumping at work or do so in restrooms, which the suit describes as “often extremely hot or extremely cold and infested with roaches and mice.”

The lawsuit claims the defendant’s alleged failures caused the plaintiff “extreme anxiety” and barred her from exercising her right to express breast milk at work. From the complaint:

The complaint can be read below.