New Jersey has just become the eighteenth state to prohibit workplace discrimination against nursing mothers. Legislation (S2709/A2294) signed into law on January 8^th by outgoing Governor Christie amended the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) to add breastfeeding as a protected category. The amendment, which is effective immediately, makes it a civil rights violation for a working woman to be fired or otherwise discriminated against because of breastfeeding or related medical conditions, as well as expressing breast milk during breaks. The legislation also applies to the other areas covered by the LAD, including housing and places of public accommodation.

The new law also requires an employer to accommodate a nursing employee by providing reasonable break time each day and a suitable room or other location with privacy, close to the work area, to express breast milk. The location cannot be a toilet stall. The law does not require that the break time be paid, unless paid break time would be available to other employees similar in their ability or inability to work. The employer must provide the accommodation unless it can demonstrate that doing so would be an undue hardship on its business operations.

While a 2010 amendment to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act required covered employers to provide break times to nursing mothers employed in positions which are not exempt from the Act’s overtime provisions, that law did not cover all employers or all employees. In contrast, the LAD requirements apply to all New Jersey employers.

SPSK’s Labor and Employment attorneys are available and ready to answer any questions you may have about the new law’s requirements.