Pregnancy and breastfeeding



Employers are legally required to provide a place for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to rest and, where necessary, this should include somewhere to lie down. There is no right to paid time off to breastfeed, but under the Equality Act 2010, it is sex discrimination to treat a woman less favourably because she is breastfeeding. HSE advice is as follows: “It is not suitable for new mothers to use toilets for expressing milk. You may provide a private, healthy and safe environment for employees to express and store milk, although there is no legal requirement for you to do so.”



A survey by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that under half of employers (47%) knew what they would need to do to accommodate mothers’ requests to express milk or breastfeed at work, and two in five employers (42%) had no facilities for breastfeeding (see also box on pages 51-52).


Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, temporary agency workers have the same rights to use shared facilities provided by the hirer as a permanent member of staff. These could include, for example, a mother and baby room, a staff room or an on-site crèche. Agency workers are also protected against sex discrimination during pregnancy and after childbirth, which includes protection from less favourable treatment because they are breastfeeding.