Breastfeeding at work: employee rights and employer obligations
Paid breastfeeding time, modified working conditions, protection against certain tasks and a ceiling on daily working hours. The law provides a precise framework for the situation of breastfeeding employees. Our partner CJE, Avocats, Conseillers d’Entreprises, offers a comprehensive insight into this little-known but essential legal framework.
The obligation to pay for breastfeeding breaks was introduced on June 1, 2014, as part of Switzerland’s ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Maternity Protection Convention No. 183. Employers are also obliged to grant breastfeeding mothers the time they need to breastfeed or express milk.
NB: The text is written in the feminine to make it easier to read, but it is of course intended for all employees concerned by breastfeeding.
1. Rights of the breastfeeding mother
- The nursing mother cannot be occupied without her consent.
- On simple notice, she can be excused from work or leave it.
- The employer does not pay the salary during the period in which the mother does not want to work.
Breastfeeding mothers can have the time they need to breastfeed or express milk during their child’s first year of life.
The mother can choose where she wants to breastfeed: at the company or at home.
Time taken to breastfeed or express milk counts as paid working time within the following limits:
- for a working day of up to 4 hours: 30 minutes maximum
- for a working day of more than 4 hours: 60 minutes maximum
- for a working day of more than 7 hours: 90 minutes maximum
The breast-feeding mother can have longer periods, but this extra time is not considered paid working time.
The time required for breastfeeding does not in any way serve to shorten working hours. A paid reduction in working hours (breastfeeding before the start of the working day or at the end) can only take place with the employer’s agreement.
- The breastfeeding mother can have the time she needs to breastfeed.
- The maximum daily working time must not exceed 9 hours.
- The protective measures applicable to pregnant women relating to arduous or dangerous work also apply to nursing mothers.
- The breast-feeding mother must be able to lie down and rest in suitable conditions.
- The period during which the mother does not work does not entitle her to a salary.
2. Employer’s obligations
The employer must provide a suitable room for the mother to breastfeed or express milk. The employer is not responsible for organizing breastfeeding facilities.
Breastfeeding outside the workplace must be organized by the mother in good faith, i.e. without a long journey that cannot be counted as working time.
Employers are prohibited from extending the normal working day for nursing mothers. In addition, the working day must never exceed 9 hours.
If the mother works between 8pm and 6am and is breastfeeding, the employer is obliged to offer her equivalent daytime work between the 8th and 16th week after giving birth.
A breastfeeding mother may only carry out dangerous or arduous activities if a risk analysis establishes that there is no threat to the mother’s or the child’s health, or if such a risk can be excluded by taking adequate protective measures.
The employer must employ the nursing mother in such a way that her health and that of her child are not compromised. He must adapt working conditions accordingly. A nursing mother may only be employed in arduous and dangerous work when :
- the non-existence of any threat to the health of mother and child is established on the basis of a risk analysis, or
- by taking appropriate protective measures.
If this is not the case, he must offer the mother equivalent work.
Employers assigning breastfeeding mothers to dangerous or arduous activities are obliged, before they start work, to have a risk analysis carried out by a competent person (occupational physician, occupational hygienist or other specialist with the necessary knowledge and experience) and to implement appropriate protective measures.
During the entire breastfeeding period, the following work is prohibited:
- night work or shift work, when these tasks are directly linked to dangerous or arduous activities;
- night work or shift work organized as part of a particularly health-damaging shift system (regular rotation in opposite directions for more than three consecutive working nights);
- activities subject to the effects of radioactive substances where there is a risk of incorporation (absorption of a foreign body into the body) or contagion (by radioactive substances).
- When the work is dangerous or arduous, the employer must offer equivalent risk-free work.
- If the employer is unable to offer equivalent work, the mother is entitled to 80% of her salary.
A job is considered equivalent if it meets the intellectual and technical requirements of the mother’s usual position and does not place too great a strain on her in view of her situation.
The breastfeeding mother must accept changes to her working day and her workstation, as well as a temporary change in her professional situation.
The proposed activity must not be degrading or demeaning, nor seek to take the mother away from her usual workstation.
The salary provided for in the contract remains payable.
If the employer terminates the employee’s contract of employment for a reason related to breastfeeding, this may, depending on the circumstances, constitute unfair dismissal, entitling the employee to claim compensation of up to six months’ salary.
This article was written by our partner CJE, Avocats, Conseillers d’Entreprises.