LACTATION QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU CALL IT WHEN…

…(a) management was unable to give an employee access to the lactation room, forcing her to go home on leave to express, (b) management let employees use the lactation room as a break area which forced a woman to wait for it to clear, and (c) another 40-minute delay was required because management was using the room for training? EEOC called it…

satisfaction of the prima facie test for proving discrimination based on a pregnancy-related condition, i.e., (1) she belongs to the protected class; (2) she sought accommodation; (3) the agency did not accommodate her; and (4) that the agency did accommodate others “similar in their ability or inability to work.” The agency tried to defend itself saying that the union made them do it, but when actual evidence was considered it demonstrated that the union had only asked the agency to make the room more secure for lactating employees.  The management’s very foolish response was not to give the key to the lactating employee, but to the Maintenance Supervisor, who did not work the same shift as the lactating employee. EEOC gave the woman retroactive leave restoration and a chance to ask for compensatory damages.  This is a great case to point your local managers to if you are having similar problems. For details, check out Krysten M., v. Louis DeJoy, Postmaster General, USPS, EEOC No. 2021005238 (2023)

About AdminUN

FEDSMILL staff has over 40 years of federal sector labor relations experience on the union as well as management side of the table and even some time as a neutral.
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