Puerto Rico New Act 29-2025: Essential Employer Obligations for Breastfeeding/Pumping Activities

Takeaways

• Nursing mothers are entitled to paid leave each working day to nurse or pump breastmilk and are protected from any form of retaliation for exercising this right.
• Time spent pumping or breastfeeding cannot be used in performance evaluations, productivity scores, bonus formulas, or any other metric tied to compensation or advancement.
• Employers may not discipline, demote, reschedule, reduce pay, or require employees to “make up” time associated with breastfeeding or pumping breaks.
• Employers should promptly update policies and train managers and HR personnel on compliance with both the Puerto Rico law and the federal PUMP Act.

Related link

• Act 29-2025

Article

On June 23, 2025, Governor Jennifer González signed Act 29-2025, amending Puerto Rico’s Act 427-2000, “Act to Regulate Breastfeeding and Breast Milk Extraction Periods,” and strengthening protections for nursing employees. These protections complement those provided under the federal PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act), which became effective in December 2022.

Both laws require employers to provide nursing employees with dedicated break time and a private space to breastfeed or express milk. However, a key distinction is that lactation breaks must be paid under Puerto Rico’s law.

New Under Puerto Rico Law

Like the PUMP Act, Act 29 prohibits retaliating against an employee who exercises her rights under the law. This includes disciplining an employee for requesting or taking legally permitted lactation breaks.

Act 29 introduces Article 10 to Act 427-2000, creating a clear-cut list:

• No negative evaluations: Employers may not issue unfavorable performance reviews based on an employee’s use of breastfeeding or pumping time.
   
• No adverse employment actions: Employers may not reduce working hours, reclassify positions, change shifts or schedules, or require an employee to “make up” time due to nursing breaks.
   
• No use as performance or efficiency metric: Breastfeeding and pumping breaks cannot be factored into decisions related to bonuses, salary increases, promotions, or other performance-based incentives. 
   
• No disciplinary measures: Employers may not rely on nursing-related absences or break time to justify verbal or written warnings, suspensions, or terminations.
   
• No retaliation or discrimination: Any adverse action, including subtle workplace retaliation, based on the request or use of nursing time is strictly prohibited.
   
• No interference: Employers may not interfere with an employee’s ability to exercise her rights under the law.

What Should Employers Do?

In light of Act 29-2025’s expanded protections, employers should consider:

• Taking immediate steps to ensure they have updated policies and employee handbooks that address pregnancy-related accommodations, including lactation breaks. 
   
• Promptly training all supervisors and HR personnel on both Act 29 and the PUMP Act (as well as the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act), focusing on accommodation rights and non-retaliation provisions. 
   
• Ensuring that they have a documented process in place for requesting lactation breaks and other pregnancy-related accommodations.

Finally, employers should ensure that they have compliant, private areas available for employees who need to take lactation breaks.

If you have any questions regarding the amended Puerto Rico law or the PUMP Act, please contact the Jackson Lewis attorney with whom you regularly work. As always, to stay up to date on state and local leave laws, employers can subscribe to LeaveSuite VIA JL.