Congratulations on your upcoming or recent arrival! The University is committed to promoting a family-friendly work environment by providing programs and services to help employees achieve success at work and in their personal lives. To that effect, employees and management are encouraged to be accepting of nursing mothers, and departments will provide a location and a reasonable amount of time to accommodate their lactation needs pursuant to state laws.
UC Policy: PPSM84: Accommodations for Nursing Mothers
Lactation Rooms
These are private, clean, and safe areas for the purpose of expressing breast milk and/or breastfeeding. The space will be in close proximity to the nursing mother’s work area, generally not more than a 5-7 minute walk.
How to request access
Requests for access can take up to 72 business hours to be granted. Your access may be granted up to a period of 2 years or less and may be extended by submitting a new request.
On-Campus contact the Dean of Students Office at deanofstudents@ucmerced.edu.
- Staff contact Benefits.
- Faculty, Lecturers, and Post Docs contact Esmeralda Martinez.
- Undergrad and Graduate Students contact Dean of Students Office.
Policy and Support
Affordable Care Act - effective January 1, 2013, UC's medical plans will be providing breastfeeding support, supplies (including breast pumps) and counseling at no cost. For more information on how this measure will affect you, please contact your medical plan.
UC Health Savings Plan
anthem.com/ca/uc
844-437-0486
Health Net Blue & Gold
Healthnet.com/uc
800-893-5597
Kaiser Permanente
Kp.org/pregnancy
800-464-4000
UC Care
uc-care.org
855-201-2087
A “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.”
A “place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”
A reasonable amount of break time to express milk as frequently as needed by the nursing mother. The frequency of breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary.
Supervisors are encouraged to work within University policies regarding breaks and hours of work to accommodate employees who wish to express milk during work hours. Generally, nursing mothers need 2-3 lactation breaks during an 8-hour work period. A reasonable amount of time for a lactation break generally will not exceed 30 minutes per break and includes the time associated with travel to and from the lactation space, expressing milk, clean up, and storage.
Decisions should therefore be made on a case by case basis. Consider schedule options that would accommodate this leave time, and still allow for business needs to be accomplished. A variety of flexible work arrangements can be used for the purpose of accommodating lactation time, such as alternate start/stop times to the workday, rearranging break periods, etc.
The lactation break time for non-exempt employees may run concurrently with the employee's existing rest period. If it is not possible for a lactation break to run concurrently with the rest period, the University must make available a separate unpaid break time. For non-exempt employees, this is neither time worked nor time on pay status.
