Anyone have experience with the new NY law allowing moms to nurse at work?

[starwishful]

Here is info about the law: http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/0822072.html

A quote: "The legislation requires employers to provide uncompensated time, and make a reasonable effort to provide private space for women to express milk or nurse their children for a period of up to three years following the birth of a child. In addition, it also bars an employer from discriminating against an employee exercising this right."

I work for a college located in New York, but I moved to Florida about a year and a half ago and now telecommute. I am working full-time from home with my mom taking care of my 4 month old in my house, but I also still nurse on demand. Up until recently, I was doing this unofficially... no one asked how I was feeding my son, so I didn't mention it. However, I have a new supervisor who is cracking down on flexibility I used to have with my hours. She now insists I am logged into a phone system and working the standard 8:30 - 5 with an hour break. I have not yet mentioned my need to nurse my son but plan to bring it up early next week. I'm not an hourly employee so I can't just take uncompensated time, so my plan is to tell her I'll make up whatever time I take nursing him during non-standard work hours. I'm hoping she'll just go along with it, but if she protests, it sounds like this law protects me? Has anyone had experience with this?

Thanks for the input.

[Breastfeeding Insomniac]

My guess is it would protect you. If you have any issues, let me know, there are some people here I can contact.

[mamajake]

Here is the text of the law:

"N.Y. Labor Law §206-c. Right of nursing mothers to express breast milk.

An employer shall provide reasonable unpaid break time or permit an employee to use paid break time or meal time each day to allow an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for up to three years following child birth. The employer shall make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location, in close proximity to the work area, where an employee can express milk in privacy. No employer shall discriminate in any way against an employee who chooses to express breast milk in the work place."

So technically the law wouldn't cover you at all since it protects expressing breast milk and not breastfeeding. But since you telecommute, how would they know? It looks as if at least you are protected in using the one hour of paid break time that you already have. It isn't clear that this law will protect you if you ask for additional unpaid time.

[meganmarie]

I don't know how often your son nurses and how long it takes... when I was pumping for my 4 month old at work I took three 20-min breaks in the day. My kids were fast nursers so even on days I was home it probably was about the same amount of time. My point being, would it work for you to simply request that your 1-hour break be split up into 3 sessions of 20 minutes each throughout the work day, which you would use to "either" pump milk or nurse your son. Now, we know you would always nurse him but they don't need to know that. If you put it that way, then you come closer to being protected by the law - and you fit better into your nit-picky supervisors' crackdown schedule. It means you might have to eat lunch with one hand and drop crumbs on your nursling though.

[starwishful]

Thanks for everyone's input. It does seem like it's vague whether the law could actually help me. If given the option, my son would nurse for most of the day, but I could probably deal with just splitting up my lunch break if that turns out to be my only option. I'm hoping to get at least a little more time than that by appealing to my supervisor's (and her supervisor's!) sense of obligation to keeping my son healthy... he's a reflux baby so nurses to feel better AND seems to have fewer issues when he's getting milk from the tap. I work as an academic advisor for a nursing program at a college, so all the "higher ups" are nurses. I'm hoping that will be an advantage for me, assuming they know the benefits of breastfeeding and will want to help me in my good decision to make my son as healthy as possible! I'll keep you posted!