| Update Applicable to: | Effective Date |
| All Employers with Employees in Puerto Rico | June 23, 2025 |
What happened?
On June 23, 2025, Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer A. González Colón signed Law No. 29-2025 into law, amending the island’s breastfeeding rights statute (Law 427-2000) to expand protections for nursing employees and clarify employer responsibilities.
Overview:
What the Law Does: Law 29-2025 strengthens workplace protections for breastfeeding employees by:
- Prohibiting employers from using lactation or milk expression breaks to negatively impact performance evaluations, promotions, or compensation.
- Banning adverse actions such as reducing hours, reclassifying roles, changing shifts, or requiring employees to make up time used for breastfeeding.
- Requiring employers to provide private, safe, and hygienic lactation spaces with electrical outlets and ventilation.
- Mandating specific break times for full-time and part-time employees, including those in small businesses.
- Ensuring the law is interpreted in the most favorable way to the nursing employee.
Additional Employer Responsibilities
- Explicit Prohibition of Adverse Actions: Employers may not reduce a nursing mother’s workday, reclassify her position, change her schedule, or require her to make up time used for lactation.
- No Obstruction of Rights: Employers are prohibited from hindering or obstructing a nursing mother’s ability to exercise her rights—this includes creating barriers to lactation spaces, imposing delays, or failing to provide adequate facilities.
- Interpretation Rule: Any ambiguity in the law must be resolved in favor of the nursing employee, strengthening her legal position in disputes.
Source References
This communication is intended solely for the purpose of conveying information. The present post might incorporate hyperlinks directing readers to websites managed by third-party entities. The inclusion of any links within this communication is meant to serve as points of reference and could encompass opinion articles from various law firms, articles from HR associations, official websites, news releases, and documents of government agencies, and other relevant third-party sources. Vensure has no authority over these external websites and bears no responsibility for their content. Furthermore, Vensure does not endorse the materials present on these websites. The contents of this communication should not be interpreted as legal advice or as a legal standpoint concerning specific facts or scenarios. Nor should it be deemed an exhaustive compilation of facts potentially pertinent to federal, state, or local laws. It is strongly advised that employers solicit legal guidance from an employment attorney when undertaking actions in response to any legal updates provided. This is due to the possibility of future alterations occurring in federal, state, and local laws, regulations, as well as the directives and guidelines issued by governing agencies. These changes may transpire at any given time, potentially rendering certain portions of the content within this update void or inaccurate.
