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On March 23, 2010 President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. The Act is comprehensive and it includes many provisions that are unrelated to health care reform. Among its many provisions, the Act amends Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to now require an employer to provide a "reasonable break time" and a private, non-bathroom location for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child's birth. Employers are not required to compensate an employee for time spent expressing milk. In addition, an employer with less than fifty (50) employees does not have to comply with the amendment if doing so imposes an "undue hardship by causing the employer significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer's business."
While the amendment became effective immediately upon signing on March 23, 2010, the Department of Labor (DOL) has not yet promulgated the rules for enforcement of the amendment. It will likely take months until the DOL issues regulations defining such terms as "reasonable break time" or "significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer's business," or how many breaks employers must provide. In the meantime, employers should be aware of the amendment and take steps to comply with this newly enacted legislation, which received very little media attention upon its enactment. For employment law related questions please contact the authors of this article any other member of our Labor and Employment Law Practice Group.
© Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, PA, 2012. All rights reserved.About the Author
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