Ulta class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Plaintiff Lovely Turcios filed a class action lawsuit against Ulta Beauty Incorporated.
- Why: Ulta allegedly failed to provide Turcios, an employee, with an appropriate time and place in which to express breast milk, in violation of federal law.
- Where: The Ulta breastfeeding lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court.
Ulta Beauty Incorporated faces a class action lawsuit alleging the beauty retailer violated federal law by failing to provide a reasonable break time and place for breastfeeding mothers to pump breast milk.
Plaintiff Lovely Turcios says she was employed at a Maryland Ulta Beauty location and returned to work after having a baby in September 2023. According to the Ulta class action lawsuit, the company failed to provide her with a place to pump and she was forced to pump in her car, visible to passersby.
Breastfeeding has numerous benefits for both the mother and her baby, the Ulta breastfeeding lawsuit explains. Breast milk reportedly provides essential nutrients and antibodies required for a baby’s growth and development, it can reduce the baby’s risk of illnesses and infections, and it has important mental and physical benefits for the mother.
Ulta breastfeeding lawsuit says beauty retailer fails to comply with federal law
Since 2010, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) required employers to provide nursing accommodations but left affected employees with little recourse if their employers failed to comply with the law.
In an effort to increase support for nursing mothers in the workplace, Congress passed the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers, or PUMP, Act, and the president signed the bill into law on Dec. 29, 2022.
The PUMP Act extends FLSA protections and ensures that employees can recover appropriate relief when employers violate the law, the Ulta lawsuit explains.
“Despite already being required to comply with the FLSA breastfeeding requirements for more than a decade, after the PUMP Act came into effect, [Ulta] fails to provide a ‘reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk’ and fails to provide a ‘place … 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,’ all of which is mandated by the PUMP Act,” Turcios alleges.
She says Ulta’s failure to provide sufficient accommodations for breastfeeding mothers has affected employees throughout the United States.
Turcios is not the first Ulta employee to allege the employer fails to provide legally mandated breaks.
In 2021, the beauty retailer was hit with an Ulta class action lawsuit alleging it violated labor laws by failing to pay certain employees for overtime, sick pay and missed breaks, among other alleged labor law violations.
What do you think about the Ulta breastfeeding lawsuit? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Turcios is represented by Mason Barney, Oren Faircloth and Lisa R. Considine of Siri & Glimstad LLP.
The Ulta breastfeeding class action lawsuit is Lovely Turcios v. Ulta Beauty Inc., Case No. 1:24-cv-00126, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
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