Writing about the difficulty that hourly workers have finding the time and space to pump breast milk while at work, my colleague Jodi Kantor noted several years ago that while it was admirable that a former Massachusetts governor, Jane Swift, had breast-fed after returning to work, doing so was more complicated for women lower on the ladder — those who work behind fast-food counters, in catalog call centers, on factory floors or as waitresses and soldiers.

“That’s a great thing to do, but she had her own office and could set her own schedule,” one doctor is quoted as saying of Swift. “The one I want to know about is the lady cleaning her office.”

Well, that lady is now guaranteed the right to use a breast pump at work, the result of the health care bill passed by Congress last month. Section 4207 of the bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include the guarantee of “a reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk,” for nonexempt hourly workers, and also the stipulation that this be done in “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public.”

There are limits on this newly codified right. Companies of fewer than 50 employees are exempt if the employer can show that this would “impose an undue hardship,” and employees are not guaranteed pay for time spent expressing milk. There also does not seem to be a requirement that employees be given access to a place where the pumped milk can be stored. And it remains to be seen how the Department of Labor will define “a reasonable amount of time” to pump or an appropriate place to do so. It’s likely that the final regulations will be modeled on those in Oregon, thought to have a workable law. In Oregon, a the definition of a reasonable schedule is “a 30-minute rest period to express milk during each four-hour work period, or the major part of a four-hour work period, to be taken by the employee approximately in the middle of the work period.” (click on link to read full story)