Governor Ned Lamont has signed into law additional protections for breastfeeding workers.  Connecticut law already requires all employers to “make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location, in close proximity to the work area, other than a toilet” where an employee can express milk in private and also prohibits discrimination or retaliation against employees who have elected to exercise their rights to breastfeed or express breast milk at work.

The additional provisions require, absent undue hardship, that such room or location:

• be free from intrusion and shielded from the public while such employee expresses breast milk,
• include or be situated near a refrigerator or employee-provided portable cold storage device in which the employee can store breast milk, and
• include access to an electrical outlet.

Employers should review their lactation accommodation policies and procedures in light of these new changes, which are effective October 1, 2021.