Legislature(2009 - 2010)BELTZ 211
03/26/2009 01:30 PM Senate LABOR & COMMERCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Confirmation Hearings for Governor's Appointments | |
| SB142 | |
| SB42 | |
| SB14 | |
| SB106 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | SB 42 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 142 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| = | SB 14 | ||
| = | SB 106 | ||
SB 42-NURSING MOTHERS IN WORKPLACE
1:47:42 PM
CHAIR PASKVAN announced SB 42 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR JOHNNY ELLIS, sponsor of SB 42, asked his staff, Amory
LeLake, to join him for the initial presentation. He thanked the
committee for hearing his "latest breast feeding progressive
legislation."
This legislation costs the state nothing, he reviewed, and
provides preventative health benefits, cuts down significantly
on health care costs for mother and infant and serves to grow
the economy by providing several significant advantages for
employers and communities.
SENATOR ELLIS said 21 states and 107 countries have recognized
the broad sweeping rewards that come from promoting
breastfeeding accommodation in the workplace. Many years ago,
while no one was ever arrested, breast feeding in Alaska was
technically considered indecent exposure in Alaska statute.
Breastfeeding women were relegated to "sometimes not the
cleanest toilet stalls" to feed their babies in public places.
Some business concerns had been brought forward since
introduction of this legislation, but he was confident they
could be addressed because other states had.
He said that breastfeeding provides a free and simple approach
to preventative medicine. Breastfed children have lower rates of
diabetes and obesity and fewer respiratory and ear infections.
Infants who are exclusively breastfed tend to need far fewer
health care visits, prescriptions and hospitalizations resulting
in a lower total medical cost compared to never breastfed
infants.
Breastfeeding also provides long-term preventative health
benefits for the mother including an earlier return to pre-
pregnancy weight, reduced risks of premenopausal breast cancer
and osteoporosis. Data from the Department of Labor and
Workforce Development (DOLWD) for 2005 show that 65 percent of
women work outside of the home today. Furthermore, mothers are
the fastest growing number on the workforce - 55 percent of whom
have children under the age of three. Providing this growing
workforce segment with the very reasonable option of
breastfeeding makes sense economically and will help insure the
health of Alaskan workers for generations.
In addition to the individual health benefits, providing
opportunities for breastfeeding results in substantial rewards
to employers including reduced health care costs, reduced
employee absenteeism for care attributable to infant illness,
improved employee productivity and happiness, higher morale and
greater loyalty to the company, improved ability to attract and
retain valuable employees and a family-friendly image in the
community.
1:53:02 PM
AMORY LELAKE, staff to Senator Ellis, did a sectional
explanation of SB 142, which says that employers are to provide
reasonable unpaid break time each day to an employee who is
nursing so that she may breastfeed or express breast milk. These
break times may run concurrently with other times provided by
the employer.
Subsection (b) provides that the employer shall provide a
private and sanitary location within close proximity to the work
area other than a toilet stall. Subsection (c) provides that
nothing in this section requires an employer to allow a child in
the workplace at times other than break times. Subsection (d)
defines "employer" as a corporation, company, partnership, firm,
association, organization or sole proprietor including any state
political subdivision of the state.
1:54:12 PM
She said the bill packet provides extensive evidence for how
breastfeeding promotes health among mothers and infants. It
benefits employers and can be achieved at relatively little cost
and has broad support. This bill is on the short list of the
2009 Anchorage municipal legislative priorities.
1:54:52 PM
SENATOR MEYER asked what the penalty is for non-compliance.
MS. LELAKE answered the bill doesn't have a penalty, but they
are willing to work with small businesses to come to some sort
of agreement.
CHAIR PASKVAN said he looked forward to receiving the committee
substitute when the important issues had been worked out. He
then opened public testimony.
1:56:17 PM
SARAH GROSSHUESCH, Department of Health and Human Services,
Municipality of Anchorage, strongly supported SB 42. She said
that increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration through
positive public policy impacts several municipal public health
programs. The Municipality of Anchorage's WIC program is a
staunch advocate for breastfeeding, and the ability for a mom to
breastfeed or express milk is brought up as a major concern when
clients are returning to work. The committee had already heard
testimony about the health benefits, but it should be noted if a
woman cannot pump every 2-3 hours, the milk production, which is
a biological mechanism, dwindles rapidly. The use of an electric
breast pump is a fast and convenient way for a mom to be able to
rejoin the workforce and continue to take care of her infant in
the best possible method for both of them.
As an employer, the Municipality of Anchorage recognizes that
breastfeeding support makes smart business sense. New mothers
have three times as many one-day absences from work as
breastfeeding mothers because their children are sick more
often. Infants fed formula for the first three months of life
incur $331 more in health care costs according to one study just
for respiratory tract infections compared to infants who were
fed only breast milk.
1:58:33 PM
VANISHA LISTON, WIC Program, Municipality of Anchorage,
supported SB 42. She related that returning to work after she
became a mom didn't seem like it was going to work, but with the
support of her employer and the clients at work understanding
how important breastfeeding really is, made it possible. She
believed that employers supporting mothers being able to
breastfeed their babies at work had changed the way that mothers
feel about it, as well.
She said that breastfeeding gives babies all the nutrition they
need to protect their immune system and protect them from
infections. Allowing breastfeeding at work really changes the
way people feel to where clients feel comfortable about asking
questions about it.
2:00:08 PM
JENNIFER AIST, Board Certified Lactation Consultant, said she is
the director of the Parent Education Program, Providence
Children's Hospital, and that she also serves as the contact
lactation consultant for the statewide WIC program. In her 15
years of working in Alaska she has witnessed women breastfeeding
their babies in all sorts of different work environments ranging
from stockers at Wal-Mart to commercial fishing to surgeons in
hospitals. She finds it disturbing that more employers do not
support a woman's basic right to provide milk to her babies. And
more relevant to this committee, she finds it completely
foolish, economically speaking, that all employers don't support
mothers collecting their milk during the workday. It would help
employers to recruit and retain employees and keep them on the
job longer.
MS. AIST said she talks to women every day who are not returning
to work because their boss is not supportive of breastfeeding,
and she has talked to women who are forced to stop breastfeeding
due to an unsupportive work environment. This is most often seen
in lower income jobs. These moms are likely on Denali Kid Care
so the cost to the State of Alaska for health care increases
exponentially for every formula-fed baby.
Breastfeeding saves money for everyone, she said. Women are not
asking for fancy lounges to pump in; they are simply asking for
the unpaid time and a clean space in which to do it. Pumping
only takes 15 minutes every 4 hours or so. Most moms only need
to pump for a maximum of one year. That means a mom taking 10
weeks maternity leave will be pumping for a maximum of 42 weeks
- 10 times per week - which is a total of 420 times. It will
keep her and her baby healthier and saves insurance, Medicaid
and the employer money.
2:02:25 PM
DEBBIE FALLON, Nurse Parent Educator as well as a board
certified lactation consultant, Bartlett Regional Hospital, said
there is a huge impact from not being breastfed. It means not
that there is less risk of dying from sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS), but it does mean there is a two times increased
risk of dying of SIDS. There is actually a 10 times increased
risk of being hospitalized for any reason in your first year of
life if you are not provided with breast milk. One of the
biggest reasons able women don't go back to work is because they
can't express their milk there. Removing milk at work is a
biological function, and if they don't do it, the pressure backs
up the milk and that makes the glands stop working.
MS. FALLON said that Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium
(SEARHC) established a breastfeeding policy in its work place
and it has been working very well for the last year and a half.
The reality is that most women aren't pumping for a whole year.
Most women don't come back for 2 or 3 months after having their
baby; so they are asking for just a pretty small amount of time.
2:04:56 PM
She, as a parent educator, has an email list of 100 families in
Juneau and she asked them to come to the meeting, and if they
were unable, to tell her their stories. She found that women are
going into bathroom stalls to express milk now. She has a woman
in the federal building who said she is stringing an extension
cord across the bathroom entrance and under the stall door, and
putting a chair in the handicapped stall. She didn't realize how
busy the women's bathroom on her floor was until she sat there
for 15 minutes. She felt seriously uncomfortable as people
tripped over the cord and the noise of the pump was heard. She
also remarked how unsanitary it was to be in the bathroom
producing food for her baby because she doesn't prepare dinner
for her family in the toilet.
MS. FALLON said she got this kind of story over and over again
from women all over Juneau. She also heard some stories about
how people were given a place at work and they talked about how
they were able to do it for a year and how much they appreciated
their employers' letting them do that and were glad to work for
them. But most of them had to do it in the bathroom.
She read another message from an employee who works for a big
box store in Juneau who said the company has great benefits,
including for domestic partner benefits, but it has no place to
pump. Mothers had to go to the bathroom that was not cleaned
regularly and was usually "filthy."
MS. FALLON reiterated that the health care costs of not
breastfeeding aside from the lost work days are estimated to run
$1200-$1500 per child (according to Kaiser Permanente in
California) or a total of $3.6 billion/yr. in the U.S.
2:07:42 PM
MINDY BARRY, teacher, Juneau School District, introduced her
children and niece and nephew who were all breastfed babies. She
just went back to work as a first grade teacher and supported SB
42. She took the first half of the year off to be home with her
daughter who struggled with feeding and was starting to lose
weight. Because she needed to go back to work, she was nervous
she would lose the opportunity to feed her. Her job allowed a
parent educator to cover her first class so she could nurse her
daughter and provided other needed breaks during the day. "It
works out really great," she said. There are five nursing
mothers in her building now, and they have a room and a rocking
chair. Her sister, a lawyer in Anchorage, was allowed to pump at
work after she had her baby, but her other sister who lives here
in Juneau was unable to pump during the day, and as a result her
daughter went on to formula and became very sick.
2:10:09 PM
TINA MARTIN, Department of Administration, supported SB 42. She
is a brand new mom and she was able to pump for about 8 months -
in the bathroom. While her supervisor was very supportive of
her, she felt she needed to do it longer, but her supply kept
decreasing because she didn't have the time to do it. "In the
bathroom you kind of get some looks about, you know, being in
there and pumping for your child."
2:11:18 PM
TANYA WINKE, representing herself, said she is a State of Alaska
employee and wanted to stress the importance of breastfeeding,
and supported SB 42. She even attended breastfeeding consultant
classes and found that breastfeeding was so beneficial for her
child that she continued it throughout her maternity leave. When
she came back to work the boss was very accommodating, but she
had to pump in the bathroom stall. It was unsanitary, but she
did it for the next 6 months. It got to be hard as she heard
people talk about her taking up 15 minutes in the toilet stall.
She actually would have liked a chair to sit on instead of a
toilet seat. Her son developed croup when she weaned him and the
doctor said it could have been due to the weaning.
2:13:31 PM
CHEYENNE SCHMIDT, State of Alaska employee, said her story is
exactly the same as everyone else's; she had to pump in the
bathroom stall. The only thing she wanted to add is that despite
having to pump in a bathroom stall where you think you are
surrounded by other women who according to the statistics are
mostly mothers, there is reluctance by some them to deal with
you because you are in the stall. They suggest you go somewhere
else or say it makes them uncomfortable. So having a law like
this would show that people could be a little more accepting of
nursing.
2:14:53 PM
LENAE WALDRON, business owner and mother of two, said she has
been able to accommodate her five employees who have had
children. Most of the time the employees are there by
themselves, and it allowed them to come back to work 6-8 weeks
after having their baby. She takes her own children to work. You
just need a quiet place other than a bathroom.
2:16:44 PM
DEBBIE GOLDEN, Division of Public Health, Department of Health
and Social Services (DHSS), supported SB 42. She said although
Alaska has a high initiation breastfeeding rate, the drop off
rate is significant. She added that people have known for a long
time that breastfeeding improves the health of babies and
mothers and likely improves their health as they grow older.
2:19:12 PM
LORIE MORRIS said she is the mother of a seven-month old child,
and an Executive Director of a small non-profit in Anchorage;
she supported SB 42. She said women hold critical roles within
the workforce and she knows that personally if she was not able
to nurse at work, she would have left the workforce. In the last
several years, she has known at least five professional women
who decided not return to work, because their organization did
not support nursing at work. Opponents of the bill may say this
mandate will be too expensive for small organizations to
implement, but research by Etna suggests that for every dollar
invested to support lactation there is a return on investment of
$2.80. Families have waited too long for the workplace to
voluntarily meet these basic standards.
2:20:27 PM
CATHERINE TAPEY, President, Alaska Breastfeeding Coalition, said
she is a board certified lactation consultant and supported SB
42 because of everything that has already been said. She added
that Dr. Audrey Mailer, in the New York Times, said a goal of
every woman in the workplace regardless of employment status is
to have the opportunity to provide breast milk for her baby.
2:21:11 PM
JEFFREY MITTMAN, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties
Union of Alaska, supported SB 42. This bill recognizes the need
to protect the rights of women in the workplace and it will lead
to having stronger families and a stronger economy.
2:21:53 PM
CLOVER SIMON, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest,
supported SB 42. As an employer they have always allowed new
mothers to bring their babies to work if they don't work in the
clinic, and if they do work in the clinic, give them ample time
to breastfeed. They also have a "great room for all of our staff
whether they are sick or if they need to breastfeed." It allows
their workers to return to work earlier and it doesn't interfere
with their productivity or seeing patients in the clinic at all.
She thought that businesses that are against breastfeeding in
the workplace are probably against women in general.
2:22:59 PM
CHAIR PASKVAN closed public testimony and said he was awaiting
the CS. [SB 142 was held in committee.]
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Governor's Appointments.pdf |
SL&C 3/26/2009 1:30:00 PM SL&C 3/31/2009 1:00:00 PM |
|
| SB 142 Bill Packet.pdf |
SL&C 3/26/2009 1:30:00 PM |
SB 142 |
| SB 42 Bill Packet.pdf |
SL&C 3/26/2009 1:30:00 PM |
SB 42 |