By Jaime RodriguezA production employee recently had a baby. She
returned to her part time job after maternity leave and worked on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm.
Since she was still nursing her child, she asked her supervisor if she could leave the plant
several times during her shift to go to her house to nurse the baby. She lived about 10 minutes from the plant and needed to nurse her child every two hours. However, this would violate company policy:
employees were entitled to a 10 minute break every two hours and a half hour lunch break between the fifth and sixth consecutive hour of work.
Question: Should the supervisor allow her to leave the
plant every two hours to go home to nurse her baby? Does she have a right to do this? Why or why not? Are there any other alternatives of action available in this case? Identify and evaluate them.
Solution: The supervisor suggested that the employee's husband bring the baby to the plant instead of having the employee leave the plant every two hours. She was able to nurse the child in the
infirmary room and then go back to work within the regular schedule. This arrangement was successful for several months until the mother stopped nursing her child.
