Stephanie Wallis won’t soon forget her first day at a new job two months after the birth of her daughter Laila. Like many nursing mothers, she needed a place to pump her breast milk. At the Greeley office of auto-loan processor Semperian, that meant a tiny storage area next to a busy conference room.
“I was in a closet with all the pencils and pens,” Wallis said. “You couldn’t even open the door from the inside. It was a hassle.”
She quit after two days.
Now, Wallis and legions of lactating mothers have the protection of a new state law.
The Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act requires employers to make a “reasonable effort” to offer a private space and paid or unpaid break time for breast pumping. The law prohibits discrimination against women for expressing milk on the job.
Some Colorado businesses have offered those benefits and protections to nursing moms for years. Yet breastfeeding advocates say that for many employers, the approach has been an impatient nod toward a toilet stall.
The law took effect Aug. 6, making Colorado the 16th state to accommodate nursing mothers in the workplace. The act does not designate penalties for violations.
Several of the other states have tougher laws with strict penalties and requirements for employers to offer paid break time, said Dr. Maya Bunik, medical director of the child health clinic at Children’s Hospital. A similar bill failed in the 2004 Colorado legislature.
“This time, we sat down the business leadership and crafted sort of a friendly law that works for them,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard to show that it’s not difficult for businesses to comply.”
Even a storage room is adequate, she said, as long as it has a light, an electrical outlet for the breast pump and sufficient room for the mother.
Merrily Archer, a lawyer at Fisher & Phillips and former gender-discrimination trial attorney, said businesses should not be concerned.
“It’s really not a big deal,” Archer said. “There are going to be resistant companies, but all they really have to do is clean out a broom closet and give somebody a reasonable space to use a breast pump.”
Accounting Principals, the temporary-employment firm that placed nursing mother Wallis at the Semperian job, will take active steps to ensure that its clients’ offices comply with the new law, said spokeswoman Tyra Tutor.
Accommodating breastfeeding mothers is part of the corporate culture at some firms.
Carey Wirtzfeld, director of the Qwest Foundation, said she came back from maternity leave to find her office equipped with curtains to give her privacy during pumping.
At law firm Holme Roberts & Owen, a specially-designated “Mother’s Den” has a couch, chair, end table, telephone and storage space for breast pumps.
“We really want to support our working mothers, and it doesn’t take a lot of effort,” said Nancy Anderson, benefits coordinator at the firm. “When we talk about what we offer, women get pretty excited.”
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
