Minnesota’s Lactation Break and Pregnancy Accommodation Regulation

As firms returned to operate subsequent the vacations, changes to Minnesota’s nursing moms statute and pregnancy accommodations regulation (Minn. Stat. § 181.939) went into result on January 1, 2022. Minnesota employers may well want to choose a minute to make guaranteed their policies and practices are up to date.

Minnesota’s Nursing Mothers Statute Now Necessitates Compensated Lactation Breaks

Minnesota legislation now requires an employer to provide “reasonable crack periods every day” for staff members to express milk. Be aware that “times” is now plural. Formerly, the regulation only needed a one lactation break all through the workday. With the amendment, the statute also states that “an employer shall not minimize an employee’s payment for time applied for the purpose of expressing milk.” In other phrases, breaks for the function of expressing milk are compensable below Minnesota law. Previously, the legislation needed one unpaid break.

The nursing mothers statute demands companies (with one or a lot more personnel) to supply reasonable split moments to categorical breast milk in the course of the “first twelve months adhering to the birth of the kid.” This crack time “must, if possible, operate concurrently” with other relaxation and meal breaks. Less than the regulation, an employer is not needed to supply this split time if it would “unduly disrupt” the operations of the employer. As mentioned above, the split time now demands to be compensated. The legislation also prohibits retaliation from staff who assert their correct to necessary lactation breaks.

Minnesota Law Expands Coverage of Necessary Pregnancy Lodging

The modification also moves the statutory text of Minnesota’s being pregnant accommodation needs (Minn. Stat. § 181.9414) into the nursing mothers statute (Minn. Stat. §181.939). With this shift, the least variety of workers necessary for the being pregnant lodging law to be induced changed to 15 workers (previously 21 workforce).

As a reminder, Minnesota’s regulation on being pregnant accommodations demands employers to present selected lodging to pregnant workers except an lodging would pose an undue hardship. The legislation lists quite a few accommodations that an staff does not have to have a doctor’s notice to request and that an employer cannot claim pose an undue hardship, which include restroom or h2o breaks, seating, and a 20-pound lifting restriction. Retaliation against staff for requesting or acquiring a being pregnant accommodation is prohibited.

Important Takeaways

Corporations may possibly want to overview their policies and techniques on lactation breaks to ensure that they are giving the compensated break time needed underneath Minnesota’s amended legislation. Businesses with in between 15 and 20 staff members could want to evaluate their being pregnant accommodations policies to ensure that they are providing accommodations in compliance with the law, which now applies to them.