CHARLOTTE, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — A Concord woman is suing the N.C. Department of Transportation for allegedly not providing adequate space for her to breast pump.
The lawsuit filed in December 2023 to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina states that leadership with the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for discriminating on the basis of sex.
The allegations state the DMV failed to make meaningful accommodations to expressing breast milk during work and impeded an employee from using a private and secure location to do so.
According to court documents, Tyima Jenkins returned to her position at the DMV from maternity leave in March 2022. At that time, she would go home to pump, but due to having to work in the field, she often did so in her vehicle. The suit states she was assigned a vehicle that had ongoing mechanical issues, including a non-working air conditioning unit.
This made the process uncomfortable, but the high temperatures also made it difficult for her to keep breast milk cool, the lawsuit states.