Breastfeeding at Work: It's your right
Breastfeeding mothers of infants enjoy special protections in Oregon when they are returning to the workforce. In 2007, the state government recognized that improving breastfeeding rates would be an important health issue, and the best way to do that would be to support breastfeeding mothers at work.
Overall, breastfeeding mothers should be provided with a private place to breastfeed or pump while at work, and should be provided adequate, unpaid breaks which they can use to express their milk.
Oregon's law further defines this, and says that breastfeeding mothers are allowed to have an unpaid 30-minute break during each 4-hour shift to breastfeed or pump (with exemptions for some small-business employers).
Federal law also defines that the private place provided for breastfeeding should be a private space that is not a bathroom.
Working through creating a workplace breastfeeding environment often requires conversation between employer and employee. La Leche League International suggests taking a friendly, helpful, cooperative attitude to work out breastfeeding issues with an employer. For instance, working out breaks may require you to tack on an extra half-hour of work at the beginning or the end of the day, and figuring out a place to express your milk may require some brainstorming (or hunting for a space) on your part.
The Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) provides some helpful materials, including a guide for employers and a sample letter (Word doc) for mothers who intend to breastfeed at work.
A final, interesting tip for breastfeeding mothers: Oregon is one of only 12 states that allow breastfeeding mothers to be exempt from jury duty.
Resources
- National Conference of State Legislatures state-by-state list of breastfeeding laws.
- Oregon DHS description of breastfeeding laws
- La Leche League International: Breastfeeding & the Law
- Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon
- Dr. Sears tips for working and breastfeeding
Oregon employers prohibited from credit checks during hiring
Oregon job applicants are protected by a new law that disallows employers from checking credit history.
A story in the Washington Post this week points out that the current difficult job market is made even harder for applicants whose personal finances are waning due to unemployment.
If employers are allowed to make hiring decisions based on an employee's credit, it can make a competitive market even more competitive -- possibly in an unfair way.
As the story author Michelle Singletary writes, "I couldn't find any independent research that says yes, if a person has lousy credit, he or she is more likely to embezzle money or accept bribes."
Oregon's law went into effect on July 1 as a result of the Job Applicant Fairness Act and prohibits most employers from using credit reports in their applicant screening process. Oregon is the third state, after Washington and Hawaii, to enact such a law.
Bob Estabrook, a spokesman for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, estimates that 35 to 40 percent of employers nationally check credit scores. Supporters of the bill's passage earlier this year argued that criminal record and drug tests may be better tools for hiring than credit reports.
Some industries, like law enforcement and banks, are still allowed to check the credit of prospective employees.
Labor Day's origins began with Oregon
It's easy to simply think of Labor Day as a holiday which marks the end of summer, and one in which we gather with friends and family over hamburgers and hot dogs, but the origins of Labor Day are steeped in the history of the labor movement in this country.
The labor unions were the first to celebrate the day and Oregon was the first state to lead the charge as a state, making it an official holiday in 1887. 31 states followed suit quickly, and in 1894 it was made a federal holiday.
Empowered workers got us out of the Great Depression, can it happen again?
Every employee in the US knows they are entitled to minimum wage, social security, and unemployment should one run into some bad luck. However, most
workers don’t know that this week marks the 75th anniversary of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)—the legislation that instated these
rights. Born out of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the National Labor Relations Board has
protected workers for three quarters of a century and continues to protect workers from exploitation. Here are some selections from a blog post US
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis wrote on the Huffington Post to commemorate this monumental legislation.
