Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/120877
BREASTFEEDING I felt I had to make a choice between my school and my daughter. EILEEN MANTZ LACTATION STATION Excerpts of California Labor Code Sections 1030-1033 Eileen Mantz felt unsupported by her administration when she requested a private place to express milk for her daughter Erin. I t was awkward and extremely uncomfortable,��� says the San Ramon Valley Educators Association member. ���I crossed my fingers and hoped nobody would walk in.��� While Mantz was pumping in her classroom during lunchtime with the door locked and the window covered, the vice principal unlocked her door without knocking and entered with a male student. She ducked under her desk and hid. Scheduling break times that coincided with her pumping schedule was also problematic. ���I felt unsupported by my administration. Obviously, there should have been 34 California Educator April 2013 conversations among administrators about all the breast-feeding moms on campus and how to support them. I was trying to make sure my child was healthy because I was already having issues with my milk supply. I felt I had to make a choice between my school and my daughter.��� Such experiences are common throughout California���s schools, says CTA lawyer Michael Hersh, who assists members whose rights are violated. Many school districts fail to meet state and federal requirements that protect nursing mothers in the workplace. These laws mandate that employers provide a reasonable space, other than 1030. Every employer, including the state and any political subdivision, shall provide a reasonable amount of break time to accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for the employee���s infant child. The break time shall, if possible, run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. Break time for an employee that does not run concurrently with the rest time authorized for the employee by the applicable wage order of the Industrial Welfare Commission shall be unpaid. 1031. The employer shall make reasonable efforts to provide the employee with the use of a room or other location, other than a toilet stall, in close proximity to the employee���s work area, for the employee to express milk in private. The room or location may include the place where the employee normally works if it otherwise meets the requirements of this section. 1033. (a) An employer who violates any provision of this chapter shall be subject to a civil penalty in the amount of one hundred dollars ($100) for each violation.