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If you employ women who want to:
- continue breastfeeding their babies when they return to work, or
- express breast milk at work and you need some practical ideas about how you can enable them to do this in your workplace, then these guidelines can help you.
Enabling your employee to breastfeed at work just takes four simple things:
- Talking with your employee
- Time
- Space (facilities)
- Support
1. TALKING WITH YOUR EMPLOYEE
- Start early
- Be flexible and open
- Be supportive
- Be clear
Good communication is the key
Talking with your employee early may assist you and your employee to develop practical solutions that meet both of your needs.
The effectiveness of any support you can provide to your employee depends on your employee knowing about the options available, or knowing where to get information about it (including from her union). Make sure your employee knows about any existing rights to breastfeeding breaks or facilities that are provided in your employment agreements.
If your business does not have a written plan relating to breastfeeding in the workplace, you may want to consider developing one. A written plan may help employees feel more comfortable about discussing their needs.
- Start early – Talk with your employee about her needs at an early stage.
- Be flexible – Be open to considering different or creative options. People’s needs vary and may change over time. What suits one person may not suit another, and an individual’s arrangements may need to be renegotiated if they’re not working out, or as time goes on. Also, in some circumstances, a creative approach might help to find solutions.
- Be supportive – Knowing that her employer is supportive of her decision to combine breastfeeding and work is important in helping an employee’s transition back to work. This also means encouraging a positive attitude among other staff. If you are unable to provide breaks or space for breastfeeding, listening and openly considering all options is showing support.
- Be clear – Make sure you are both clear about what is agreed, and your obligations towards each other. It is a good idea to have arrangements written up into the employee’s written employment agreement. If your employee is a member of a union, she should have the opportunity to talk with her union before making any formal changes to her employment arrangements. If you are unable to accommodate all of an employee’s needs, or are unable to provide breaks or facilities for breastfeeding or for expressing breast milk, make sure the employee understands the reasons for this.
“We’ve installed a breastfeeding area in each of our main buildings,
with fridge and full change facilities. We’ve made employees aware
of these facilities by advertising them on our intranet. It means that
women contemplating coming back to work know it is an option. Most
mums use the area to express and like the fact that it is private and
comfortable.” Avette Kelly, Auckland City, local government.
2. TIME
This means the time needed to breastfeed, either at the workplace or off-site, or to express breast milk.
Some of the things you may wish to discuss with your employee include:
- what hours she will work on her return to work
- timing and frequency of breaks, and
- whether these breaks are paid or unpaid.
Hours on return to work
An employee returning from parental leave is entitled to return to the same role and under the same terms and conditions of work (including pay) that she had before taking leave. While an employee may want to return to work under the same terms and conditions, she might also want to negotiate a change in her terms and conditions to help her combine working and family responsibilities or breastfeeding. If reasonable and practical, options to consider include working part-time, job sharing, flexi-time, changing shifts, working from home, or changing roles.
Under the Human Rights Act, an employer may give preferential treatment to an employee because of her pregnancy or childbirth[3].
It is good employment practice to be open to considering such changes (any changes agreed to would need to be set out in her written employment agreement, specifying whether these changes were for a defined period or permanent).
Timing and frequency of breaks
The timing and frequency of breaks should be sufficient to enable a baby to be breastfed adequately at work (or sufficient milk to be expressed), and enable the mother to successfully combine breastfeeding and paid work.
By the time your employee returns to work, she is likely to have established breastfeeding routines and may already have some idea about what works for her and her baby. Remember that the mother’s and baby’s needs may change over time. (She may need fewer breaks as time goes on, but this isn’t always the case.)
Plunket recommends that the overall duration of arrangements around breastfeeding or expressing breast milk at work is left open-ended, as it is difficult (and even unhelpful) to try to estimate the number of months a woman and her baby may require for breastfeeding[4].
You’ll need to think about what can be accommodated given the particular work conditions of your business.
You and your employee will need to agree on how many breaks for breastfeeding or expressing milk she can take each working day, and, the length of time of these breaks. For example, 1 x 60-minute break, 2 x 30-minute breaks, 3 x 20-minute breaks, or 3 x 30-minute breaks (and reducing over time as needs be), or if your particular workplace arrangements allow, you may be able to be as flexible as “3 breaks a day for as long as is needed”.
Whether the time agreed on is an adjustment to existing breaks (paid or unpaid), or additional paid or unpaid breaks, is a matter you should discuss with your employee. The International Labour Organization (ILO) recommends at least 90 minutes of paid breastfeeding breaks per working day[5]. However the time required to breastfeed (or express breast milk) will vary between different mothers and babies and should be sufficient to ensure the baby is fed adequately.
Some ideas to consider:
- can she use her existing lunch and tea breaks and take them at one time
(e.g. have 1 x 90-minute break per day)? This might suit someone who is
breastfeeding off-site
- providing additional paid or unpaid breaks
- if the employee prefers to breastfeed at home, she may want to do without one break and go home slightly earlier (say 4.30pm rather than 5pm), or she may want to start later and finish earlier
- changing shifts (see also above under ‘Time’).
Important
Your employee needs to know if breaks are paid or unpaid, and this needs to be negotiated between both of you (or between you and her representative). For some employees these sorts of terms might already be set out in the collective or individual employment agreement.
“Sometimes I have later starts in the morning or leave earlier –
it depends on the baby. Having an employer who understands the need
for that sort of flexibility makes all the difference.” Jo, employee.
“In our branches or smaller centres, employees are entitled to
reasonable paid breaks so they are able to go to the local Plunket room,
crèche or home in work time to enable them to continue breastfeeding.” Karyn Herbert, Westpac.
3. SPACE (FACILITIES)
To set up an appropriate place for employees who are breastfeeding you need:
- a private, clean, quiet, warm room or space – such as a screened off area (spaces don’t need to be sterile, just clean), which needs to be big enough to manoeuvre a pram
- a low comfortable chair. To ensure privacy, windows or glass walls may need to be screened.
If an employee is expressing breast milk, in addition to the things listed above you will need:
- a lockable door
- a washbasin
- a fridge (or chilly bin with ice packs) for storing expressed breast milk. (A communal fridge is acceptable, because breast milk is considered food, not a body fluid, so can be readily stored in a labelled container in the fridge.) If a fridge or chilly bin is not available, breast milk can safely be stored at room temperature (19-22ºC) for up to two hours[6]
- a table
- a clean space to store equipment (e.g. small locker or cupboard)
- power point (if using electric pump). Toilets are not acceptable places to breastfeed or express breast milk.
Toilets are not only unsanitary, but are also inappropriate for some cultures. While it is not a great option (because a mother will need daily and regular access to whatever room is set up for her), a sick room could be used as a breastfeeding/expression room when not otherwise being used.
(Note – a chair is still needed as well as the bed.)
The following things are nice to have but not essential:
- a two-seater sofa is preferable, with a low table beside it. The chair’s arms should be low, soft and wide enough to accommodate and support a feeding baby comfortably
- a tri-pillow
- a foot stool
- a changing pad or table. You may also wish to consider providing a carpark near work for the mother to use, particularly if she is breastfeeding off-site, or for the baby’s carer to use when bringing the baby to work for breastfeeding.
“We provide a sterilising unit, fridge facilities and have bottles on hand to store milk – these things are available to both staff and clients. Because of the connectedness between the mother and baby during feeding, it’s really important that they have a quiet place to do this – not at a desk. We allow time out and a quiet and restful place for both mother and baby.” Sudy Law, Kay Law, small business.
4. SUPPORT
Providing space and time for breastfeeding is great, but breastfeeding in the workplace also needs a supportive environment.
Knowing in advance that she has an understanding boss and workmates can positively influence a pregnant employee’s decision about whether to breastfeed.
Combining breastfeeding and work isn’t always easy for an employee.
Having a supportive boss and workmates is essential.
This support can be as simple as ensuring that people don’t make inappropriate remarks or jokes and that they are co-operative about any temporary work changes made to accommodate breastfeeding.
Support could include:
- making sure other staff know the workplace is breastfeeding-friendly and, if necessary, encouraging tolerance around any additional noise or disruption associated with having a baby at work
- making sure the employee is comfortable with the arrangements and is able to raise any issues
- checking with the employee every so often to make sure arrangements are working effectively
- making sure any caregiver, partner and baby is welcome in the workplace.
“Having a supportive employer makes a huge difference coming back to work, especially as my baby is still quite young – you’ve got enough to worry about without stressing about that [how you are going to breastfeed at work].” Jo, employee.
“Employees find it difficult bringing children in because they’re worried about taking time out and kids being disruptive – but because they know they can take the time out and have their own space the stress is off – it’s empowering.” Sudy Kay, Kay Law, small business.
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Footnotes
[3] Human Rights Act 1993, section 74.
[4] Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, letter to Department of Labour, 20 June 2005.
[5] Recommendations supporting Maternity Protection Convention 183, ILO, 2000.
[6] Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee recommendation. For more information on handling and storing breast milk, see “Guidelines for Supporting Breastfeeding in the Workplace” by Judith Galtry, Marcia Annandale, and the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust.
This page was last updated on:
15-Aug-2007
and is current.
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