Repost: Court Rules that Federal Law Bars Employers from Discriminating Against Breastfeeding Employees

Legal Momentum recently represented female construction workers in a discrimination case and helped protect the right to receive breastfeeding accommodations on the job.

"Earlier this year, Legal Momentum filed to intervene on behalf of four female sheet metal workers in a lawsuit filed against Vamco Sheet Metals, Inc., a New York-based construction company that manufactures and installs sheet metal. The lawsuit was originally filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September of last year, after the agency’s investigation concluded that the company had discriminated against its female employees. The investigation was prompted by the charges filed by four women, each of whom reported being terminated from her job due to her sex.

Legal Momentum’s court papers also noted that one of the women reported being discharged by the construction company after she notified her supervisor that she was a nursing mother in need of time and space to express milk for her child.

In their court papers opposing Legal Momentum’s intervention, defendants argued that the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not protect employees who are terminated after requesting breastfeeding-related accommodations. The Magistrate Judge disagreed, ruling that employers who take adverse employment action against nursing employees may be found to violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act" (Legal Momentum, 12 June 2014).

Read the full press release and ruling at https://www.legalmomentum.org.

Repost: FKG sets a new precedent with on-site childcare centre

by Laura Hunt
13th Jul 2013 6:00 AM



ONE of Toowoomba's largest construction companies is hoping an on-site childcare centre will attract more families and women to join its workforce.

FK Gardner & Sons Group recently opened its first on-site early learning centre, Building Blocks, at its Toowoomba office.

The service costs about 50 per cent less than the national average, with space for 18 children.

Contracts administrator Alex Williams' seven-month-old son Harrison was one of the first to be taken in.

"It's great and so convenient. You know everybody's parents and you can go down at lunchtime and visit them," Mrs Williams said.

"When I was on maternity leave and looking at how expensive the options were, I was thinking 'how am I going to go back?'

"It's really positive financially and has provided a good incentive to return to the workforce."

FKG managing director Nick Gardner said the decision followed a successful parental scheme introduced in 2012 that offered incentives for parents to return to the workplace after starting a family.

"It worked really well and got the thought process started on the childcare centre," he said.

"It's a bit left field for a construction company to be setting up a childcare centre but we're a family-based company and our values are to provide a family atmosphere. From our perspective, attracting and retaining good staff is difficult so it's a good feather in the cap to offer current employees but also future employees.

"We're certainly trying to set ourselves apart from others in the industry."

View the original article at http://www.ipswichadvertiser.com.au.