Frontier Airlines lands settlement with pilots grounded during pregnancy, barred from pumping breast milk

DENVER (CN) — Five pilots announced a settlement with Frontier Airlines on Monday that provides new employment protections for pregnant and nursing pilots as well as permission to pump breast milk in the cockpit.

“Today’s settlement accomplishes a vital goal: ensuring that expectant and new mothers are treated with the fairness and respect they deserve,” attorney Jayme Jonat, who represents the pilots with her firm Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, said in a statement.

Calling the lawsuit groundbreaking, Jonat said she hopes the case sets an example for improving working conditions across airlines.

In pair of class actions filed in 2019, the plaintiff pilots claimed Frontier denied pregnant employees paid maternity leave and forced expectant mothers to take unpaid leave weeks or months before they were due to give birth. The employees said the carrier ignored requests to be temporarily reassigned to positions on the ground, which would have allowed them to continue earning an income.

In addition, expressing breast milk for newborns was all but impossible on the job, the plaintiffs said. Breastfeeding is associated with numerous health benefits for both mothers and babies, but it can be a time-consuming operation and is difficult without workplace accommodations. Most women need to pump milk or nurse every three to four hours to maintain milk supply; failing to express milk regularly often causes pain, infection and milk supply reduction.

Under the new agreement Frontier airlines will let pregnant pilots fly, as long as their doctors sign off on it, and will reassign new and future mothers so they can take on other duties, as the company would do to accommodate any other employee with a medical condition. Breastfeeding pilots may also reduce their schedules to 50 hours of flight per month.

Federal law expanded protections for pregnant and nursing workers last year, but the PUMP Act, an abbreviation of Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers, carved out exceptions for flight attendants and pilots. The Air Line Pilots Association is now advocating for follow-up legislation, titled the AIR PUMP Act.

While the Federal Aviation Administration has not issued rules for expressing milk in flight, Frontier joins other airlines in allowing breastfeeding mothers to pump milk during “noncritical phases of the flight,” according to a release.

The airline reached a similar agreement with flight attendants last year.

“We are proud to be at the forefront of accommodating the needs of pregnant and breast-feeding mothers in the airline industry,” Jacalyn Peter, vice president of labor relations for Frontier Airlines, said in a statement. “Thanks in part to advances in wearable lactation technology, the parties were able to reach an amicable resolution of this case that also maintains our commitment to the highest safety standards.”

The Denver-based airline is represented by Littler Mendelson.

The settlement is subject to approval from Senior U.S. District of Colorado Judge Christine Arguello, a George W. Bush appointee.

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