DISH Network Accommodation of Nursing Mothers

The ACLU of Colorado sent a letter on March 12, 2014 to DISH Network documenting multiple failures to accommodate nursing mothers at the company’s corporate headquarters in Englewood, where employees are forced to pump breast milk in front of their co-workers and supervisors, without privacy screens or curtains, and at a DISH Network call center in Littleton, where the lactation room is located inside a bathroom in direct violation of federal and state law.

According to the ACLU’s complaint, the lactation room in one of the buildings at the DISH Network headquarters was so small and crowded that women were forced to pump while sitting on the floor.

The Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mother’s Act, passed by the Colorado legislature in 2008, as well as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act as amended by the Affordable Care Act in 2010, require employers to provide sufficient private spaces, other than a bathroom, for nursing employees to express breast milk, shielded from the view of all other co-workers and the public. Private spaces may be created in a large room through the use of privacy screens between nursing mothers.

The ACLU is calling on DISH Network to provide adequate space and privacy in all of its lactation rooms so that multiple nursing employees can pump privately at the same time, training for all supervisors and facilities managers about accommodations the law requires, and posted notice in all lactation rooms detailing the rights of nursing mothers.

The ACLU received a prompt response outlining changes the company has made in response to the ACLU's letter.

“After ACLU complaint, Dish to improve conditions for nursing mothers,” The Denver Post, March 24, 2014

“ACLU: Dish breast-pump policies, lactation room violate workplace law,” The Denver Post, March 12, 2014