2,180: Support of Breastfeeding Employees

Revised: December 2019

In compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the University provides reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for one year after their child’s birth. This policy is applicable to all employees.

For up to one year after the child’s birth, any employee who is breastfeeding their child will be provided reasonable break times to express breast milk for their child. It is recommended that if at all possible a space within the employee’s general office area be used. This could be the employee’s office, a spare office or another room which would be secure, private, and appropriate. This space cannot be in a bathroom.

If no space is available near the employee’s normal workspace, the employee can use one of several Lactation Rooms on campus. Rules for use of a room and the refrigerator, if available, may be posted within. Employees using a lactation room should leave the room in the same condition as they found it, and all expressed milk must be labeled and should be removed from the refrigerator each day.

For hourly employees, each of the employee’s two normal break periods during an eight-hour shift may be extended to thirty (30) minutes for the purpose of expressing breast milk. The employee may use their unpaid lunch period as well. If additional time beyond the two thirty-minute break periods and the unpaid lunch period is needed, the employee must request to use annual, sick or unpaid leave to cover the additional time away from work. Reasonable expectations to the length of break periods may be made for employees who must travel more than five minutes in each direction to a lactation room or who must wait for an occupied lactation room to become available.