By Rebecca Rosenberg, NY Post
A Staten Island nurse who sued her former employer for refusing to provide her with a private space to pump breast milk and then firing her for complaining will get a $255,000 payout, court records show.
Tabetha Tyndale, 30, reached the agreement with Extended Managed Long Term Care on Sept. 5, but the parties still have to finalize paperwork to make the settlement official, according to a letter from her lawyer, Eric Sanders, to Brooklyn federal Judge Robert Levy.
Tyndale sued the home health care company earlier this year, alleging unlawful employment practices and a violation of her civil rights.
After starting her job in March 2018, she immediately encountered difficulty finding a private place to pump milk for her 10-month-old son.
She was working out of the company’s Staten Island satellite office, where, the suit says, “She was forced to express milk at her desk or in an open cubicle or in the bathroom.”
In an interview with The Post, she said, “I was pumping at my desk. There are men and women there, and absolutely no privacy.”
Her colleagues, she said, openly mocked her, with one referring to her as a milk “cow.”
“She experienced mental anguish, embarrassment and humiliation having to express milk in a room full of people trying to work,” the filing alleges.
After repeatedly complaining about the pumping conditions, she was axed without explanation June 21, 2018, the suit says.
“I think it was just becoming too much for them,” Tyndale said of her bosses’ decision to fire her.
A lawyer for Extended Managed Long Term Care, Joseph Saccomano Jr., didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
This article originally appeared in the NY Post.
