Lawsuit Claims Amazon Fails to Accommodate Workers Who Pump Breastmilk

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A proposed class and collective action alleges Amazon has failed to provide sufficient time and space for employees to pump breastmilk for their infant children.

The 31-page lawsuit was filed by a mother who works at Amazon’s Beaumont, California facility, a 640,000 square-foot fulfillment center wherein the retail giant, per the case, “only dedicates one 6 foot by 6 space for its lactating employees.” The plaintiff alleges that she and many other breastfeeding mothers cannot even walk to the provided lactation room, let alone pump, within the five minutes they are allotted for breaks.

The case claims that Amazon has violated federal and California labor laws by failing to provide the required time and resources for lactating employees to pump breastmilk.

According to the suit, employers in California are required to “make reasonable efforts” to provide lactating mothers with a private location to express breastmilk. Per the case, the room must be near an employee’s workspace, not be a bathroom, and contain certain required items, such as a surface on which to place a pump, a place to sit, access to electricity, a sink with running water and a refrigerator or cooler in which mothers can store milk.

The lawsuit claims that Amazon, as the second-largest employer in the U.S., “undoubtedly has the resources to comply with such regulations,” but has chosen instead to “blatantly flout these rules.”

The plaintiff says her infant child was five months old when she began working for Amazon as a fulfillment center associate in August 2021. Though the woman was informed that the retailer would provide accommodations for her to pump breastmilk during her shifts, she found out that such accommodations consisted of only a small room on the first floor of the four-story building, the suit says.

The plaintiff claims that it took her about eight minutes to walk to and from the lactation room each way, plus roughly 15 to 20 minutes to pump and clean supplies. According to the complaint, however, the plaintiff was told that her pay would be docked if she took more than five minutes for a bathroom or rest break.

The plaintiff says that in order to avoid penalty, she resorted to pumping breastmilk during her half-hour lunch break and, as a result, often experienced engorgement—a painful condition that can occur when milk is not fully removed from the breast. According to the suit, the USDA recommends expressing breastmilk every two to three hours to avoid engorgement, which can result in discomfort, plugged ducts, lowered milk supply or even a dangerous infection.

The plaintiff claims that although she informed Amazon’s human resources department “several times” about the “untenable situation” in the provided lactation room, the retailer took no action to address the problem, and instead reduced the plaintiff’s weekly schedule from 40 to 32 hours to accommodate her need to pump breastmilk.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who was or is employed by Amazon in California and is a lactating parent, i.e., an individual who expresses milk for their infant child.

The suit also seeks to cover current and former employees who were denied lactation accommodations by Amazon in the U.S. at any time within the past three years and until the entry of judgment in this case.

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