TanyaS
10-08-2008, 10:35 PM
The 2009 legislative session is coming very soon! The Arkansas Breastfeeding Coalition has already begun work on a new legislative effort for the upcoming session. We were successful in 2007 with your help. We need you again!
ABC is currently working working to pass more legislation in the 2009 session to protect workplace pumping. Employers can and have prevented nursing mothers from pumping for their babies on their own time. Help us to change the business environment to a more family friendly one, and join our efforts to make Arkansas a breastfeeding-friendly state.
If you are not already a member of the ABC, please visit the website to become a member and stay informed throughout the process.
http://www.arkansasbreastfeedingcoalition.org/
Here is the proposed legislation from the site:
PUMPING IN THE WORKPLACE: PROPOSED LEGISLATION
A. An employer shall provide reasonable unpaid break time each day to an employee who needs to breast-feed or express breast milk for her child to maintain milk supply and comfort. The break time, if possible, shall run concurrently with any break time, paid or unpaid, already provided to the employee.
B. An employer shall make a reasonable effort to provide a private, secure, and sanitary room or other location in close proximity to the work area, other than a toilet stall, where an employee can express her milk or breast-feed her child. The room or location may include the place where the employee normally works if it otherwise meets the requirements of this section.
This statute is modeled after the Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota, and Georgia statutes, which all have similar language and structure.
Please join us, and help pass reasonable laws to protect breastfeeding!
Also, the ABC is looking for stories from mothers who have pumped at work. We need a variety of stories. Did your employer supported your pumping efforts? Did your employer refuse to allow you to pump on your breaks? And anything in between! Post them here, or contact the ABC directly. There is a possibility we will need one witness with a compelling story to testify at the committee hearings. We will definitely need women with workplace pumping stories to contact their legislators as the bill moves through. If you do not have a story and support this bill, we need your support, too!!!
ABC is currently working working to pass more legislation in the 2009 session to protect workplace pumping. Employers can and have prevented nursing mothers from pumping for their babies on their own time. Help us to change the business environment to a more family friendly one, and join our efforts to make Arkansas a breastfeeding-friendly state.
If you are not already a member of the ABC, please visit the website to become a member and stay informed throughout the process.
http://www.arkansasbreastfeedingcoalition.org/
Here is the proposed legislation from the site:
PUMPING IN THE WORKPLACE: PROPOSED LEGISLATION
A. An employer shall provide reasonable unpaid break time each day to an employee who needs to breast-feed or express breast milk for her child to maintain milk supply and comfort. The break time, if possible, shall run concurrently with any break time, paid or unpaid, already provided to the employee.
B. An employer shall make a reasonable effort to provide a private, secure, and sanitary room or other location in close proximity to the work area, other than a toilet stall, where an employee can express her milk or breast-feed her child. The room or location may include the place where the employee normally works if it otherwise meets the requirements of this section.
This statute is modeled after the Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota, and Georgia statutes, which all have similar language and structure.
Please join us, and help pass reasonable laws to protect breastfeeding!
Also, the ABC is looking for stories from mothers who have pumped at work. We need a variety of stories. Did your employer supported your pumping efforts? Did your employer refuse to allow you to pump on your breaks? And anything in between! Post them here, or contact the ABC directly. There is a possibility we will need one witness with a compelling story to testify at the committee hearings. We will definitely need women with workplace pumping stories to contact their legislators as the bill moves through. If you do not have a story and support this bill, we need your support, too!!!