Human Resource Blog

locking the bathroom in NJ

Some of the employees at our company in New Jersey are requesting that a lock be put on the ladies restroom door. There are 2 stalls, however, one of our employees are breastfeeding and the other is diabetic. Is it discrimination to have a lock on the main bathroom door?

No, but it may create more problems than it solves, if this is your only restroom for women.

Almost all public restrooms for either sex have deadbolts on the main door for security reasons. This is true of bathrooms in most restaurants, libraries and office buildings. The thought process is that if a person is being attacked, he or she can run to the nearest restroom and deadbolt it. While this does not guarantee safety, it at least buys some time while the person calls the police on his or her cell phone. It would certainly not be discrimination if you put deadbolts on the main doors of both the mens and womens restrooms. These deadbolts are almost never used.

However, as an employer you also have a legal obligation under OSHA to provide employees with restrooms, and the opportunity to use them when nature calls, within reason. The deadbolt may be an issue if locking it means that other employees do not have access to a bathroom for extended periods of time. This may not be a problem when the diabetic locks the door, because it probably takes her 5 minutes or less to use her insulin. However, if the breastfeeding mother locks the bathroom door for 20 minutes to express milk, that will mean that female employees do not have access to a bathroom during that period. Unless you have another bathroom available, that could be a problem.

One solution would be to permit the brestfeeding mother to use a private office, break room or other area with a lock, to pump breast milk. In fact, many states require that employers provide such a space for breastfeeding mothers, although New Jersey does not, yet.