Posted By Eric Burt
Has anyone been following this case......

MOTHERS who take their babies to work have lost their right to take breaks to breast-feed them, following a tribunal ruling yesterday.
The ruling came in the case of an RAF flight lieutenant who took the Ministry of Defence to an employment tribunal after she was denied the right to breast-feed her baby while on duty. Helen Williams, 31, had taken six weeks of paid maternity leave and planned to return to work, but was told that if she wanted to continue breast-feeding she should extend her leave, which would have been unpaid.

Mrs Williams, of Bristol, left her £30,000-a-year job as an engineer and took legal action. She won, but the MoD won at an employment appeal tribunal in London yesterday, which ruled that it was unfair to expect her employers to give her time off to breast-feed.

Five months ago the Department of Health recommended that infants should be breast-fed for at least six months.

Mrs Williams said: “I feel very strongly that women should not have to choose between breast-feeding and returning to work. Employers can easily make adjustments.”

Apparently this has gone back to the EAT as they didn't look at the health and safety aspects. I would have thought that this was fairly clear under the Management Regs 99!

Anyone got any more info?

Ta


Eric