Firing Momma

A recent panel opinion of the Fifth Circuit, EEOC v. Houston Funding II, Ltd, No. 12-20220, reversed summary judgment in an employer's favor where the employer discharged a lactating mother. The holding, on the facts presented, found the EEOC, in representing the plaintiff had met its McDonnell-Douglass burden of presenting a prima facie case that the employer had terminated the plaintiff's employment on account of a pregnancy related condition. Of note, Judge Jones' concurring opinion reminds practitioners there is no duty to accommodate lactating mothers under Title VII. But it does not address the fact that:

[t]he Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Affordable Care Act”) amended section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to require employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk. Employers are also required to provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk. The break time requirement became effective when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/