The Wick Law Office won an important victory for our Client against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agency. At the time of the issues in her case, our Client needed a location to express milk for her son who was still nursing. CBP failed to provide a lactation room that was private and free from intrusion. Employees who were not lactating had keys to the lactation room provided by CBP. This resulted in another employee entering the room while our Client was using it to express milk and seeing her half-naked body. Even after complaining to her supervisors about this incident, the Agency failed to obtain keys from the other employees. Although the lock was eventually changed, CBP retaliated against our Client by requiring her to request the key for the room from a male employee who would ask questions about her breastfeeding and by implementing a sign in/out log to track her and another lactating employee. The key also was not readily and regularly available, resulting in several humiliating incidents where our Client’s breastmilk leaked through her shirt and was visible to other employees.
The EEOC found that DHS discriminated against our Client based on her sex when it failed to provide a her a private space to express milk and inhibited her access to designated areas to express milk. It also found DHS discriminated against her when it unlawfully sent her home from work for approximately two weeks and failed to accurately process her June 2016 leave request.
If you have questions about this decision, or the impact of it on other cases, please contact Holly V. Franson at Holly@wick-law.com.