Frontier attendants say they couldn’t breastfeed on the job

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“As a result of Frontier’s actions, I have had to choose between performing my job and earning a living on the one hand, and continuing to breastfeed my child on the other,” Roby said in her complaint, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Holwell Shuster & Goldberg law firm.

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Frontier responded that its policies comply with state and federal laws and the flight attendants’ union contract.

“We have made good-faith efforts to identity and provide rooms and other secure locations for use by breast-feeding flight attendants during their duty travel,” it said in a statement.

Roby and Rewitzer acknowledge that Frontier did try to provide locations for them to pump in airports but said they were not always close enough to gates to allow them to pump milk between flights so they could make it to back to planes in time to work.

They asked in the complaint for Frontier to be required to provide adequate places for them to pump on flights and in airports. They said they should have the option of working temporarily on the ground to avoid having to take leaves.

Galen Sherwin, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, said the entire airline industry still has a lot of work to do accommodate nursing mothers but the situation is the worst for them in smaller airlines like Frontier where parental leave is not standard.

Flight attendants often end up taking time off before delivery because of the physical demands of the work, she added.

Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union, said flight attendants and pilots do not have the option of part-time work or lunch break pumping.

“Everyone has a mother and it’s high time we recognize the realities of motherhood in aviation,” she said.

Sherwin said the EEOC is still investigating the pilots’ complaints and could ultimately decide to allow them to sue Frontier on their own, sue on their behalf or mediate the dispute.

The EEOC is not allowed to confirm or discuss ongoing investigations.

Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press