MARCH 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Companies address breastfeeding needs
Wieden+Kennedy’s private
breastfeeding room at its offices in downtown
Portland.
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STATEWIDE In the
few months since Oregon’s workplace breastfeeding law
arrived, some companies have been acting to comply with
requirements to provide private space and time for new moms who
need to pump breast milk at work, while others with existing
support are kicking it up a notch.
It took years for workplace breastfeeding protection to win
enough support from business to pass through the state
Legislature. Now that it’s here, lobbyists, breastfeeding
advocates and companies say it will help nursing mothers
without putting undue burden on industry.
The law, which took effect Jan. 1, requires Oregon employers
to make a private area available for working mothers to express
breast milk and 30 minutes of unpaid time off for every four
hours worked to do it. It’s part of a wave of
family-friendly workplace initiatives that has seen similar
laws pass in a total of 14 states, with bills pending in 12
others.
Oregon’s workplace breastfeeding bill was introduced in
2001 but didn’t get far due to opposition from business
groups for placing too many requirements on small business. It
ultimately earned their approval after being reworked to exempt
companies with fewer than 25 employees, which account for about
90% of Oregon businesses, according to the Alliance of Oregon
Industries. Also exempt are business owners who can prove
complying with the law would create an undue or financial
hardship.
The Oregon companies that must comply represent 70% of the
state’s workers. Some of them are carving mothers’
rooms out of offices or other space. Cascade Healthcare
Community has created a mothers’ room at its hospitals in
Bend and Prineville and two other facilities, and is creating
such a room at its Redmond hospital. LaCrosse Footwear, the
Portland work-boot manufacturer, is putting a mothers’
room in a former office, with a locking door, window shade,
upholstered chair and table.
Many companies are long-time supporters of employees’
nursing needs, such as Wieden+Kennedy, which built a private
breastfeeding room within its women’s locker room eight
years ago when it moved to the Pearl district in Portland.
New Seasons Market, the natural foods chain with nine stores
and 1,800 employees in the Portland metro area, has long
provided employees with a private space to nurse, offered
breastfeeding classes and hosted the website for the Nursing
Mothers Counsel of Oregon, a breastfeeding advocacy group.
It’s now working to rent breast pumps from the group for
employees to use at work, and is underwriting the group’s
telephone and Yellow Page ad expenses. “We felt it was so
important that moms who needed help be able to call someone for
information on how to take care of their baby,” says
spokeswoman Claudia Knotek.
MICHELLE V. RAFTER
Have an opinion? E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
