Ulta Beauty Denies Nursing Employees Proper Lactation Accommodations, Lawsuit Says

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A proposed collective action alleges Ulta Beauty has unlawfully failed to provide employees with sufficient lactation accommodations, including by denying them required breaks and a private space to express breast milk.

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The 31-page lawsuit was filed by a makeup artist at Ulta’s Rockville, Maryland location who claims her rights under the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act were violated when she was forced her to pump breastmilk in her car due to the beauty retailer’s lack of accommodations. Enacted in 2022 to address gaps in preexisting legislation, the federal law states that employers must offer nursing workers a private, functional space other than a bathroom to express breast milk, the case explains.

Also under the PUMP Act, Ulta was required to provide employees with a “reasonable break” each time they need to pump at work for one year after their baby is born, the filing shares. However, the plaintiff, who returned to work in September 2023 after having her child in July 2023, says she tried to pump at least twice per shift but was not always permitted to do so, especially during busy weekends when Ulta scheduled her with back-to-back clients. As the filing tells it, the two 15-minute breaks the plaintiff was allowed to take each shift did not give her enough time to sufficiently pump.

The suit says that Ulta’s failure to provide the plaintiff with adequate accommodations caused her to experience engorgement at work, which can be painful and lead to infection. It also resulted in a significant reduction in her milk supply, the filing shares.

According to the complaint, the only spaces made available to the plaintiff to pump were two office rooms that were regularly occupied by employees entering and exiting. The woman had no choice but to begin pumping in her vehicle where passersby “could and did occasionally” see her, the filing says.

The plaintiff says she felt “humiliation” and “emotional distress” without a secure place to pump. Per the suit, the woman’s experience is not unique and reflects a “systemic issue” that has affected Ulta employees nationwide.

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

The lawsuit looks to represent current or former employees of Ulta Beauty who, since December 29, 2022, have not been provided with a sanitary “functional space”—i.e., one that is shielded from view, free from intrusion, available when needed and not a bathroom—or have been denied a break to pump breast milk while at work in the year following the birth of their child.

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