Federal Manager's Daily Report

Image: Leonard Zhukovsky/Shutterstock.com

GSA has formally included breastfeeding among the “special needs” that allow an agency to pay for additional travel expenses for an employee on temporary duty, saying that both employees and agencies have asked for guidance on that question.

That authority is designed to accommodate employees who have a need that is “either clearly visible and discernible or substantiated in writing by a competent medical authority,” says a notice in the October 27 Federal Register.

“Employees who breastfeed and go on official travel orders face a physical challenge that other employees who are not breastfeeding do not. Travel away from home usually requires the employee to be away from the child. While milk can be expressed beforehand and left for a caregiver, sometimes there is not enough to last the duration of the trip and milk must be safely stored and shipped back home,” it says.

“In order to not force employees to make a choice between nursing or fulfilling work duties, federal agencies may recognize that a nursing employee on official travel has a special need, as verified per regulatory requirements,” it says. “Agencies may determine that the special need means that a spouse, nanny, or other attendant can accompany the employee on the trip at government expense in order to watch the child in between the employee’s reasonable break periods to breastfeed while working at the temporary duty station.”

“If no attendant is necessary, an employee on official travel may still need to use services for storage and shipment of breast milk to the child,” it adds.

VA, DoD Outline Approaches to Enforcing Vaccine Mandate

Additional Guidance Issued on Qualifying as Vaccinated

Agencies Told to Highlight Unions, Labor Rights to Current, Incoming Employees

Labor Memos Underscore Change of Direction under Biden

Prospects for 2.7 Percent Fed Raise Advance a Step

2022 Federal Employees Handbook