A former employee of the Meijer supermarket chain filed a lawsuit
against the company after allegedly being forced to pump breast milk in a
room that was equipped with surveillance cameras.
Rachel Keesling of Lapeer, Michigan, said that she suffered emotional
distress after being told there is probably a video of her pumping
breast milk on the Internet, as the computer server room was equipped
with numerous surveillance cameras.
Keesling wants the company to give her $25,000 for sex discrimination,
invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Keesling is married and has two children. Keesling began working at Meijer as a part-time employee.
About three months after giving birth to her daughter, she told her
supervisors that since she is breastfeeding, she would need breaks to
pump breast milk in a private area.
Keesling was initially said to use a conference room, but sometimes it was not available.
From time to time, she had no choice, but to use the bathroom.
By law, a company is required to provide a room for mothers other than the bathroom.
Keesling was eventually allowed to use the computer server room for
pumping, but after using it two or three times a day, she discovered
that there were full of surveillance cameras.
She was then told that the cameras allowed people to see everything and that it was likely to be a video of her on the Internet.