Existing law imposes various requirements upon employers concerning safety, working conditions, and other matters regarding the workplace, but no requirement upon private employers to accommodate employees desiring to express breast milk.

This bill would require employers to provide a reasonable amount of break time to employees desiring to express milk. The break time would be required to run concurrently, if possible, with any break time already provided. The bill would provide further that in the event it is not possible for the break time for expressing milk to run concurrently with the break time that is already provided to the employee, the break time for expressing milk shall be unpaid. Employers would also be required to provide the use of a room, or other location, other than a toilet stall, in close proximity to the employees’ work area. The bill would permit the room or other location provided by employers to employees for the purpose of expressing milk to include the place where the employee normally works as long as that location meets the bill’s other requirements.

This bill would exempt an employer from its requirements if the employer’s operations would be seriously disrupted by providing break time to employees desiring to express milk. The bill would subject employers who violate these provisions to specified civil penalties and would authorize the Labor Commissioner to issue citations for such violations. The bill further provides procedures for issuing, contesting, and enforcing judgments for citations or civil penalties issued by the Labor Commissioner for violations of the bill’s provisions and would impose a state-mandated local program by requiring, through incorporation of an existing provision, clerks of superior courts to issue judgments upon receipt of a prescribed filing by the Labor Commissioner.

Existing law provides that certain violations of the Labor Code are misdemeanors.

This bill would provide that, notwithstanding any provision of the Labor Code, violation of the bill’s provisions shall not be a misdemeanor. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement, including the creation of a State Mandates Claims Fund to pay the costs of mandates that do not exceed $1,000,000 statewide and other procedures for claims whose statewide costs exceed $1,000,000.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement shall be made from the State Mandates Claims Fund for costs mandated by the state pursuant to this act, but would recognize that local agencies and school districts may pursue any available remedies to seek reimbursement for these costs.