What Counts as a Private Space Under the PUMP Act? Hint: Not a Room With a Camera

In our last post, we covered the basics of the PUMP Act, the federal law that guarantees nursing employees break time and a private space to pump at work. This post digs into the question we hear most often: what does private actually mean? The statute answers it directly. The space must be somewhere other than a bathroom, it must be shielded from view, and it must be free from intrusion from coworkers and the public. Those two phrases, shielded from view and free from intrusion, do real work. Shielded from view means no one can see the employee while she is pumping, whether through a window, a doorway, or otherwise. Free from intrusion means people cannot walk in, and the employee should not have to pump while bracing for the door to open. A room that fails either test fails the law, no matter what the employer calls it.

Now consider a scenario that comes up more often than you might think: the employer designates an office as the pumping space, but there is a working surveillance camera mounted in that room. Is that space shielded from view? In our view, no. A camera is a set of eyes. If the camera is operable, then anyone with access to the live feed or the recordings can view the employee at the most private moment of her workday, and the employee has no way of knowing who is watching or when. The U.S. Department of Labor has addressed this in its enforcement guidance, explaining that a pumping space is not shielded from view if the employee can be seen by a security camera, and that cameras in the space should be turned off or covered. Half measures do not solve the problem. Telling an employee to turn away from the camera, drape herself, or trust that nobody looks at the footage does not make the space private, it just shifts the burden of privacy onto the person the law was written to protect.

The camera problem also raises issues beyond the PUMP Act itself. South Carolina, like most states, recognizes a common law claim for invasion of privacy, and video monitoring of a person in a place where privacy is expected, and promised, can support that kind of claim independent of any federal statute. For employers, the lesson is simple: if you designate a room for pumping, treat it like a private room. Cover or disable the cameras, cover the windows, put a lock or a sign on the door, and make sure staff know not to enter. For employees, the lesson is equally simple: you do not have to accept a camera in your pumping space, and you should not be told that being watched is just part of the job. If that is happening to you, write down the dates and details, notify your employer in writing, and consider speaking with an employment attorney about your rights.