Worker was denied a private space to pump breast milk at Florida resort, feds say
A new mother working at a luxury resort along Florida’s northeast coast was unable to pump breast milk for her baby in private while at work, according to federal officials.
After the woman asked for a private area to pump breast milk at Hammock Beach Golf Resort and Spa in Palm Coast, where about 550 people are employed, it took her supervisors nearly four months to designate a space for her, the U.S. Department of Labor announced in a Sept. 18 news release.
However, the space they offered her, a manager’s office, wasn’t private — especially when a co-worker walked into the room as she tried to pump breast milk, officials said.
When the woman notified her boss that she needed to leave the resort in order to pump milk for her newborn, her employer “submitted a written counseling to the employee for leaving workplace property without permission,” officials said.
Generally, a written counseling informs an employee of poor work performance or conduct that’s not approved of.
By denying the mother a private space to pump breast milk, the resort’s operator, Aimbridge Employee Service Corp., violated federal law — specifically the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the Department of Labor.
“Employers who fail to provide break time and a private place as the law requires are creating a barrier for women to balance their career and a child’s needs once they return to work after having a child,” the agency’s Wage and Hour Division District Director Wildalí De Jesús in Orlando, Florida, said in a statement.
“Employers must provide nursing mothers a place to pump at work, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public,” De Jesús added.
McClatchy News attempted to reach Aimbridge Employee Service Corp., which is headquartered in Plano, Texas, for comment on Sept. 18.
New mothers must be allowed breaks during the workday when they need to pump breast milk for a year after giving birth, according to Fair Labor Standards Act protections.
Aimbridge Employee Service Corp. also violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when it came to the amount of hours it had minor employees ages 14 and 15 working, according to officials.
Eight 14- and 15-year-olds were found working too long and too late, both on school days and on days when school wasn’t in session, officials said.
The teens illegally worked more than three hours on a school day, past 7 p.m. during the school week, more than eight hours on a non-school day and over 40 hours a week when school wasn’t taking place, according to the release.
Aimbridge Employee Service Corp. was assessed $6,810 in civil money penalties for violations of federal labor laws, officials said.
Palm Coast is about 80 miles northeast of Orlando.
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