KFC ordered to pay $2million to former employee after breastfeeding discrimination

A breastfeeding mum has won more than a million dollars from Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), after her boss made it very difficult for her to pump breast milk at work.

Autumn Lampkins breastmilk supply dried up as she was only allowed a break to pump breastmilk once in a ten hour shift. 

Autumn was awarded US$25,000 in compensatory damages and US$1.5 million in punitive damages.

The ruling comes nearly three years after Lampkins filed a suit in  July 2016, claiming that her supervisor and fellow staffers at KFC made it difficult for her to pump breast milk at work. She said the situation caused her "embarrassment, pain, and a decrease in breastmilk supply for her son," according to the Delaware News Journal.

Autumn was hired as an assistant manager at KFC in Delaware just months after giving birth to her son. She wanted to breastfeed him and was told that it would be possible to pump during working hours.

But during her time at the franchise, she reportedly said she was "only allowed to pump about once during each 10-hour shift. 

When she did use the breast pump, Autumn was only allowed to use a single-stall bathroom, or her manager's office "which had a surveillance camera that she was told could not be turned off".

She was then transferred to another branch but was demoted and treated unfairly when other workers suggested she was getting more breaks than them to feed her child. 

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