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Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Infant feeding

Rights for breastfeeding mums at work

15 replies

lyndyloo · 08/01/2007 15:04

I know some health and safety legislation covers the needs of mums at work but can anyone comment on this situation.

Going back to work this week and have to carry on breastfeeding (mainly cos child won't accept bottle!). The H and S law says nursing and expectant mums should have a rest area but doesn't really specify what this might be. There is no legal right for expressing needs - i.e private room and a fridge. Anyway my employer says they can't accommodate me to express at work - all I need is 2 half hour sessions per day and a small fridge - but they say no space. (They have a point - there is very little space tbh). They have given me 2 options:

Go home at lunchtime to feed baby either at nursery or express at home (I live near)

OR

Work from another office where I can have the facilities I need. However on this option I will be isolated from my usual colleagues and tbh this is further to travel everyday.

I think it's a pretty poor show from a public sector body. I am kind of going to go for option 2 I think but I think it is rotten. I am on verge of contacting union and may take a grievance - mainly to make a point and to maybe pave the way for other women...

Any thoughts/advice etc.

Thanks.

OP posts:

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fizzbuzz · 08/01/2007 15:16

I thought they had to give you somewhere to express by law. Am going to check out fave website and will get back

yellowrose · 08/01/2007 15:43

lyndy - the choices you have been given sound pretty crap to me. I would defo. contact your union. It seems odd. Alternatively a citizen's Advice Bureau or Law Centre where there is an Employment Lawyer should be able to help.

Good luck !

yellowrose · 08/01/2007 15:49

I found this on the NCT website:

www.nct.org.uk/breastfeeding/support-employer.html

sorry, can't do the link properly, just copy and paste !

lyndyloo · 08/01/2007 15:52

Thanks - will print that off to show employers. I work in HR though and they know their stuff. Legally it doesn't say they MUST provide facilities to express just a rest room and though I would be covered by a risk assessment I guess, I can see I would have to make an issue out of it. This is typical, having to make a fuss to get something that really should be a given in any work you do.

I note that in Scotland which has a newish parliament - they actually have a law regarding this I think. It is much more specific.

OP posts:

MrsBadger · 08/01/2007 16:00

Could you manage without a fridge and use freezer blocks in a cool bag if they could just get you the use of a private room?

One of the mums here booked the darkroom for two slots a day for several months and expressed there - no-one knew what she was doing, they just thought she had a lot of work to do in there... Is there a similar office / seminar room you could book?

yellowrose · 08/01/2007 16:02

lynd - yes having read the stuff, I agree there are health and saftey regulations, but they are just recommendations, not legally binding or enforceable as such.

Do take it up with the NCT or some other org.

God, I can just imagine if I had had to return to work and pump at work ! I used to work in a City law firm, lots of pin stripped suited men and all that. There would have been lots of clean private rooms, but none would have had a private fridge, I would have had to put the expressed milk in the fridge everyone else used for coffee milk and food.

I can just imagine the face of a Senior Partner taking out my milk, with my name on it and thinking, what the feck, this milk has gone off !!

In fact to be honest, I know this isn't a possibility for every mum, but my work environment was so not conducive to a bf mum that it is the MAIN reason I ditched my job and have never returned.

We need to become more like Scotland or Scandinavia with re. to maternity and bf rights. The Scots are way ahead of us passing laws to help bf mums.

fizzbuzz · 08/01/2007 16:03

Not on website, but isn't it discrimination if they don't provide somewhere. You have special rights after mat leave. Have a look at this, although can't do links.
www.dti.gov.uk/files/file18061.pdf

MrsBadger · 08/01/2007 16:05

(NB a communal fridge can work fine - the darkroom-pumping mum mentioned below used our tearoom fridge without a problem, just wrapped the bottle in a carrier bag and no-one gave it it a second glance. So long as your collegaues aren't in the habit of stealing one another's lunches, that is...)

kiskidee · 08/01/2007 23:58

i used to put my milk in a communal fridge in the veggie section at the bottom. i don't give a feck if anyone found it and looked puzzlingly or whatever at it.

yellowrose · 09/01/2007 09:28

kiskidee - I wouldn't have given a feck either if someone saw my milk in the fridge, in fact I would have laughed !

I was just trying to sympathise with the OP and making a comment about how some work environments, esp. those in the private sector like finance and law institutions in the City of London, delibertely or otherwise, make it impossible for a full-time bf mum to return to work.

The culture in the City is to work, work, work, and sod the family. Once you have a child AND you are committed to raising them youself, you are pretty much demoted. The female Senior Partner (on 1/2 a million plus K when I was there) returned to work full-time exactly THREE days after giving birth. Not my idea of raising a family.

It didn't gel well with my attitude towards bf (I am still at it 2.5 years on and very much in favour of my son weaning himself off not being told to wean him by some bastard boss !)

Sorry, I feel quite strongly about this and pissed off that bf has such a low status at work in the UK. Go to Scandinavia and you will see a massive difference.

yellowpoppy · 09/01/2007 14:39

Not just the city! I work in the NHS and am having nightmare with HR/occ health trying to find somewhere for me to express and store milk when I go back to work...and thats before you even think about getting a break to go and express...

yellowpoppy · 09/01/2007 14:41

And I work in a 'baby friendly' hospital too...

yellowrose · 09/01/2007 14:47

Hi - YP - I like your name - do you like yellow flowers too ?

lyndyloo · 09/01/2007 16:52

I would have though NHS would be better than that! Sheesh.

The thing about storing ebm in a communal fridge is this - how do you know it is safe and secure and no one has tampered with it? I know it's unlikely but when this was raised with me I did actually think they had a point.

OP posts:

evenhope · 09/01/2007 17:21

I work in the public sector and our rules specify that b/f mothers have to be provided with somewhere private to express, preferably on the ground floor for easy access by emergency personnel(and actually specifies not the toilets), and says if the medical room is chosen they must come up with plans for what to do if there is a medical emergency; preferably with access to handwashing facilities and a fridge. They also say that if obliged to use a communal fridge they must supply something to prevent cross contamination by other users.

I thought that was pretty comprehensive- didn't realise it wasn't the same everywhere else.

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