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Lawsuit claims law shields nursing mom

Supreme Court to rule on pregnancy discrimination case

LaNisa Allen holds her son Treyvion, 4, in their Colerain home Wednesday evening, March 18, 2009. When Treyvion was four months old, LaNisa was fired from her Totes/Isotoner Corp. job for using a breast pump on company time. Allen is suing the company and her case is now at the Ohio Supreme Court. Contributed photo by Jessica Uttinger

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By Tiffany Y. Latta, Staff Writer Updated 8:49 AM Monday, April 27, 2009

When LaNisa Allen returned to work after giving birth to her son, she never imagined she would have to choose between her job and breast-feeding.

But that’s what Allen, a former general laborer for Totes/Isotoner Corp. in West Chester Twp., said she felt she had to do in 2005 when a supervisor told her the only time she could use a breast pump to empty her milk was at an 11 a.m. lunch break.

“We had to be there at 6 a.m. That (waiting until 11 a.m.) was too long. ... My breast and back were hurting,” said Allen, 38, of Colerain, who said she fed her son before going to work at 5:30 a.m. and needed to pump her milk at least every three hours. “It was uncomfortable and I started leaking through my shirt.”

Allen’s solution was to sneak off to pump her milk at 10 a.m. after seeing co-workers take bathroom and smoke breaks. When discovered by supervisors, she was fired.

Allen sued, claiming pregnancy discrimination.

The Ohio Supreme Court will rule later this year on this novel point: whether pregnancy discrimination protects lactating women, too. (For more information on pregnancy discrimination, visit our Web site.)

Her attorney, John H. Forg III of Middletown, contends the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 includes lactating women because new mothers produce milk whether they want to or not.

“Employers cannot discriminate against women because of pregnancy or an illness related to pregnancy,” Forg said. “We contend that pregnancy would include lactation, because the physical changes in pregnancy also include lactation.”

Totes/Isotoner defended terminating Allen, saying that Allen wasn’t fired for lactating, but for taking unscheduled breaks, according to court documents.

“Whether Allen legally was entitled to receive an additional rest break or entitled to have her breaks rescheduled because she was lactating are questions that are not at issue because Allen restructured her own work schedule without asking her employer how or even whether she might do so.”

Calls to Totes/Isotoner attorneys were not returned prior to publication.

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