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California’s Labor Code requires employers to provide a reasonable amount of break time to an employee for the purpose of expressing milk at work, so you will need to allow an employee to take breaks during the workday to pump milk. The employee can use rest and meal breaks to pump, but if the employee needs additional time beyond those breaks, you will need to provide it.
For nonexempt employees, any additional time off to pump will be unpaid; for exempt employees, the time will be paid. The only exception to the requirement to provide time off is if your operations would be seriously disrupted by providing break time to employees to express breast milk.
The Labor Code also requires that you provide employees with a place to express milk. You must provide a room or location, other than a bathroom, that is close to the employee’s work area and that allows the employee to express milk in private. The location can be the employee’s regular work area if it allows the employee to express milk in private. Additionally, the room itself must:
In addition, the employer must provide the lactating employee with access to a sink with running water and a refrigerator suitable for storing breast milk close to the employee’s workspace. If a refrigerator cannot be provided, the employer may provide another cooling device suitable for storing milk, such as an employer-provided cooler.
An employer who employs fewer than 50 employees and can demonstrate to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) that it is an undue hardship to find a location other than a bathroom (due to the size, nature or structure of the business) must instead make reasonable efforts to find a private and close location other than a toilet stall.
Employers aren’t required to provide a permanent location designated solely to accommodate lactation by its employees; they may designate temporary locations. If a temporary location is used, however, it must be because the employer is unable to provide a permanent lactation location due to operational, financial or space limitations — and it’s now subject to certain requirements. The temporary lactation location:
When a multipurpose room is designated as a temporary lactation location, the use for lactation takes precedence over other room uses — but only for the time needed for lactation purposes. If an employer in a multitenant building or multiemployer worksite can’t provide a location within its own workspace, that employer can provide a space shared among multiple employers within the building. Employers or general contractors coordinating a multiemployer worksite must either provide lactation accommodations or provide a location for a subcontractor employer to provide lactation accommodations on the worksite within two business days of a written request by a subcontractor.
Agricultural employers may provide an employee wanting to express milk with a private, enclosed, and shaded space, including, but not limited to, an air-conditioned cab of a truck or tractor.
In addition, California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation for conditions related to “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions,” which includes lactation. This could include making accommodations to an employee’s work schedule if it does not allow sufficient time to express milk.
Consult legal counsel if you are considering denying an employee’s request for a lactation accommodation.
Read more about Employees Expressing Breast Milk at Work in the HR Library.