Connecticut Law Expands Requirements for Workplace Lactation Rooms

On June 4, 2021, Governor Ned Lamont signed House Bill No. 5158, modifying Connecticut’s breastfeeding in the workplace law to expand employers’ obligations to provide lactation rooms. The new law requires employers with one or more employees, including the state and any political subdivision of the state, “to provide a room or other location, in close proximity to the work area,” where she can express milk in private. The room or location cannot be a toilet stall. The new law goes into effect on October 1, 2021.

These lactation rooms/locations in the workplace must also “(1) be free from intrusion and shielded from the public while such employee expresses breast milk, (2) include or be situated near a refrigerator or employee-provided portable cold storage device in which the employee can store her breast milk, and (3) include access to an electrical outlet.” Under the new law, an employer must “make reasonable efforts” to offer the above so long as there is no undue hardship on the employer’s business operations.

In light of these amendments and their broad application, employers may want to consider reviewing their lactation rooms and policies to ensure compliance with the law.