Nursing Mom Settles Lawsuit With Sun Country Airlines

ST. PAUL, MN — Sun Country Airlines has settled with a nursing mother who accused the Minnesota-based company of violating her rights under state law to pump breast milk and not be harassed and discriminated against at work.

Gender Justice, the group that representative the mother, released the following statement Thursday:

The Parties have resolved the case in a manner that is satisfactory to both parties. The Parties are proud to say that Sun Country has committed to implement nursing mother accommodations beyond those required under federal and state law, including a new lactation space.

Sara Jane Baldwin, senior staff attorney for Gender Justice, said: "In Minnesota, nursing and pumping parents have a legal right to be supported and protected against discrimination on the job, and Minnesota employers have a legal responsibility to protect them and provide the basic accommodations they need."

According to the lawsuit, the airline repeatedly failed to provide Hani Ali an adequate place to pump and store milk to feed her new baby. During this time, one coworker leered at her through a window as she pumped, Ali claims.

She was also harassed over the time she needed for pumping breaks, according to the lawsuit.

The airline also denied her opportunities for desirable work assignments specifically because of her need for pumping breaks, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also claims that Sun Country violated Ali’s rights to be protected from discrimination and reprisal under the Minnesota Women’s Economic Security Act, and it violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act’s prohibition against sex discrimination in employment and retaliation against employees who assert their rights under the law.

Ali was hired onto Sun Country’s customer service team at the Minneapolis International Airport in September 2021, five months after giving birth to her and her husband’s second child, according to the lawsuit.

The airline knew when it hired her that she would need a place to pump breast milk, Ali claims. But before her first shift, she was told there was no designated nursing room and that she should use the baggage claim office, a high-traffic area with large windows on the walls and doors, the lawsuit states.

Two months later, Ali — a practicing Muslim who needed to remove her hijab during pumping breaks — noticed her male coworker staring at her through one of the windows, the lawsuit claims.

Despite her efforts to wave him away, he continued to look at her while she was exposed and actively pumping, according to Ali. The coworker alerted a male manager, who came and demanded that Ali use a public restroom instead, despite her supervisors’ instructions to use the baggage claim room, the lawsuit states.

The two men subsequently filed a complaint with the company’s human resources department against Ali, who was then told she could no longer enter the baggage claim office for any reason, according to the lawsuit.

According to Ali, she was left without a working refrigerator in which to store her breast milk and the only place to go when she needed to pump was a public nursing area inside the terminal, which she could only access by passing through security.

The process to arduous process added up to 20 minutes of travel time to her pumping breaks and required security checks of her breast pump and the ice-filled thermos she now needed to carry to keep her milk cool enough to be safe for her baby, the lawsuit states.

As a result of the bullying and inaction of Sun Country’s human resources team, Ali resigned in March 2022, the lawsuit states.

Read the full lawsuit here.