Companies Should Extend Breastfeeding Rights to Workers as well as Customers

Companies who allow their customers to breastfeed in public should extend the same rights to their employees, says Tayside solicitors firm Miller Hendry.

The warning follows the high-profile case of airline company easyJet, which failed to accommodate requests from cabin crew to vary their duties in such a way as to enable them to express breastmilk so that they could continue breastfeeding after their return to work after maternity leave. Easyjet offered two members of its cabin crew six months of ground duties while they were breastfeeding. easyJet’s argument was that continuing to breastfeed longer than six months was the employees’ own choice. easyJet also failed to respond to a request to limit the length of shifts the mothers were to work from 12 hours to 8 hours.

Although easyJet recognised breastfeeding as being a right of passengers, the airline’s position did not extend to crew, according to the complainants – both members of the trade union Unite.

An employment tribunal ruling found that easyJet’s suggested solution amounted to discrimination. Unite’s legal officer, Nicky Marcus, said the ruling had “wider implications for all working women”.

Alan Matthew, employment specialist with Miller Hendry, said: “It’s usually breastfeeding customers who make the headlines, with retailers and other service providers touting their openness to women breastfeeding, or being called out for not allowing it. But this case shows that employees are just as important when it comes to the rights of working mothers. This ruling is a lesson for all employers and how they treat their female employees.”

(Source: Miller Hendry)