Remember This Next Time You're Replacing Your Lost Gloves Or Umbrella

[dr_pretentious]

Totes/Isotoner may technically have been within the law when they fired a woman for pumping breastmilk for her five-month-old infant while on the job, but I'm within the law when I declare a one-woman boycott of their brands. Discrimination against a nursing mother doesn't constitute gender discrimination? Really?

As the dissenting Ohio Supreme Court Justice put it:
There is no evidence in the record about any limit on the length of unscheduled restroom breaks and no evidence that employees had to seek permission from a supervisor to take an unscheduled restroom break. There is evidence only that unscheduled bathroom breaks were allowed and that LaNisa Allen was fired for taking them. What made her breaks different?
What made her breaks different was that for fifteen minutes out of every workday, she was trying to do what medical science has shown again and again was best for her baby, and someone up the supervisory foodchain thought boobies were gross.

There are plenty of other companies that make gloves and umbrellas. I've never paid much attention to brands when I've bought those things. I'll be paying attention now.

Comments

[temporus.livejournal.com]

Deplorable. There's no excuse for that.

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

I am with you, Isotoner is off my list of brands I will buy. This is a lousy thing to do to a working mother.

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

I used to love my Isotoner gloves; these days, they're too tight with my poor circulation, so there was little danger of them getting my money anyway. But I spit upon their graves in solidarity, nevertheless. :-)

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Astonishing stuff. Why was it their concern in the first place?

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

The tragic crimes of time theft and non-compliance. She was told not to pump and then she had the audacity to produce breastmilk and get all engorged anyway! And then she stole from the company by taking extra unscheduled breaks to relieve her discomfort and do what was necessary to feed her baby.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I have this mad theory that if we learned to ditch the profit motive and move to a payment-free, egalitarian consensus model, and just looked out for each other, we'd be much more compassionate and laid back, as well as much more artistic, scientifically innovative, and generally free of most of the ills of society. I think a whole host of socially and environmentally unsustainable systems and industries would die, and we'd all be flourishing.

I know, I'm a lunatic.

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

GAH!

OMG dr_pretentious, you have a COMMUNIST on your blog!

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Actually I think you are right. "Money is the root of all evil" and all that.

[happy-dr-friend.livejournal.com]

I'll join you in the boycott. (Or rather, suggest to the Astronomer that he do so, since the ugly truth is that I rarely buy things like umbrellas and gloves. He's the designated shopper for the family.)

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I will happily join you.

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thank you. I have been looking for a good brolly and I'm not looking there.

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

That is the end result of a court case where they were probably being sued for cash (and therefore probably fought tooth and nail, even though they were in the wrong for firing the woman). I wonder what their actual policies are now? Not to defend anyone. Just the paralegal in me knows how long cases can take.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

All good points. And there's no reason to assume that competing manufacturers don't have worse policies.

Still, they could have settled out of court and made the case go away. They decided instead to on a course of action that could have resulted in legal precedent that would damage other women's ability to pump at work. Even if they'd put the spiffiest lactation policies and facilities of all time into place since the case began, that still wouldn't help all the other working mothers in Ohio who work elsewhere. Thank goodness the ruling was so narrow.

Welcome to my blog, by the way. I can't tell whether I know you. Our friends lists don't appear to overlap. How did you find me? It's always cool to find new people in my comment threads.

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

Interesting to note that this is what they are saying: http://www.totes-isotoner.com/text/content/custserv/press_releases/Ohio_Supreme_Court_Case_Ruling.html

[siobhra.livejournal.com]

Sounds like they have a room just for women to use when they need to pump. With a 70% female work force they would be walking on thin ice to do wrong by her.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

That might be the case, but it's hard to be sure from the phrasing of the press release, which is really pretty vague:

totes»ISOTONER has, does and will continue to provide work-place lactation support for all nursing mothers, including considerations for time, place and opportunity. Many nursing mothers have and continue to take advantage of these accommodations. In this particular case accommodations were in place and provided.

"Considerations for time, place and opportunity" might mean almost anything, or it might mean almost nothing. They don't say they have a room, just that they've considered the issue of place. They don't say they specifically allow pumping breaks, just that they've considered the issue of time. What does "support" constitute? Maybe as much as a written policy prohibiting discrimination against nursing mothers, maybe as little as casual lip service about being family friendly.

After a PR black eye like the one they've brought on themselves, it would have been in their interest to be more specific if they could, so the vagueness makes me suspicious. If they have lactation rooms and written policies, why not say so?

On the other hand, the grammar and spelling aren't what you'd expect from a person who gets paid to write press releases every day, so maybe the PR person thinks she's been specific, even when she hasn't.

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

Having policies in place is a CYA corporate manuver. Whether or not employees can access those accomodations is very often a different story. It is distinctly possible that the policy doesn't allow for as much pumping as the mother of a 6 month old baby would need (probably every 3 hours or so). I'm still pissed by the way they went after this case, as Dr P said, they could have settled or handled it in a more collegial way.

[laradionne.livejournal.com]

After reading the articles available, it sounded to me as though the main complaint held by Totes/Isotoner in the case was that the employee was taking breaks on the sly rather than taking breaks that had been approved by her supervisor.

No one seems to have mentioned whether or not the aforementioned supervisor would have approved any breaks, or whether the "workplace lactation support" policies in place existed before they fired their employee.

As I already have more gloves and umbrellas than I need, the issue of where to shop or who's product to purchase is largely an exercise of my imagination (which frankly is not all that interested in gloves or umbrellas these days so I doubt I would have shopped for any before knowing about this case).

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

Some of the most oppressive work environments are ones where women make up the majority and there is next to no concern about alienating an easily replaceable workforce.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link!

They say they made accommodations, but I wonder what, specifically, those accommodations were at the time of the disputed firing.

Maybe their efforts to save face over this case will pay off for later employees, the way Rutgers University started some really ambitious, effective programs for supporting minority students after the President of the university got caught on tape making impressive racist comments. It's not exactly justice, but it would be better than nothing.

Wow, their PR people write clunky sentences. Really, really clunky. On the other hand, I like the Dickensian name of the PR person. Who wouldn't love the idea of a PR person named Victoria Fightmaster?

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Victoria Fightmaster deserves to be a major character in a book.

I always thought that journalist Peregrine Worsthorne's name was perfect for a Regency era book, or perhaps a 1930s house murder mystery.

There are some fabulous names around. In southern England, there's a family name I'd love: Death. Usually from the Flemish De Ath, but sometimes from the old English for fuel/tinder dethe.

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Letters sent today to Totes Isotoner Corporation informing them why I will no longer purchase their products. Shame on them.

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

At least they don't make nursing bras. I have a mental image of a nursing bra with red gloves sewed on and a caption about Isotoner being caught red handed discrimination against nursing mothers. I'll do the sewing if you write the article to go with it!