BREAST-FEEDING AT WORK RULES 'COULD COST WOMEN JOBS' !!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

By Fiona Macrae
29th November 2010

Encouraging new mothers to breast-feed at work will pile the pressure on small businesses struggling to keep afloat, industry leaders have warned.

The Government wants businesses to become ‘new mother friendly’, with special areas set aside for breast-feeding and fridges provided to store milk.

Under the plans, to be set out in a public health White Paper later this week, employers will also be expected to be flexible over when breast-feeding women can take breaks.

The proposals could see babies being brought into work to be fed or women being allowed extra-long breaks to go home to breast-feed.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said that breast-feeding was one of the simplest ways to boost the health of a baby.

But critics said it was wrong to try to ‘micro-manage’ people’s lives in this way and business leaders warned about the economic consequences of placing additional pressures on cash-strapped companies already struggling to deal with a maze of new legislation.

Under paternity laws that come into force next year giving new mothers the option of going back to work earlier, while the father looks after baby, large numbers of women could opt to take advantage of the scheme.

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said firms were struggling to keep on top of legislation covering maternity and paternity leave and working hours.

He added: ‘Each one in itself is reasonable and justifiable, but together, year on year, the cumulative impact is loss of a job.’

Economist Ruth Lea, former head of the policy unit at the Institute of Directors, warned women could ultimately be the ones to suffer.

She said: ‘Inevitably this will lead to extra costs on business, and make it harder and harder for them when they are expected to be creating new jobs. If you are an employer and you are looking for a new recruit and you have a young man and a young woman, what would you do?

‘I would worry that this would backfire on women.’

Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe said that this was not the approach she expected from a Conservative-led Government. ‘I could absolutely weep,’ she told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show.

‘Now we have got the state actually saying to employers, in a time of recession, you must provide paid breaks, paid facilities, a special fridge for expressed milk and goodness knows what else for women returning to work who have decided, on their responsibility, presumably, to have a child. It is not appropriate for the state to micro-manage our lives as they are doing.’

But the National Childbirth Trust welcomed the advent of breast-feeding-friendly offices.

The charity’s Rosemary Dodd said: ‘If it means a woman is relaxed and confident about going back to work, then that’s a good thing for employers. Evidence suggests such measures promote loyalty, and stopping breast-feeding can jeopardise the health of a child.’
A pilot scheme involving hundreds of companies will test whether the measures help improve breast-feeding rates.

With breast-feeding helping protect against a host of ills including obesity, eczema and ear, chest and tummy bugs, the Department of Health recommends that mothers feed their babies on breast milk alone for the first six months.

But the UK has one of the lowest rates of breast-feeding in Europe, with just two-thirds of new mothers attempting it, compared with 98 per cent in Sweden.

Rates are particularly low among manual workers.

The Government said the changes will be voluntary and will not involve any new legislation.

A Department of Health spokesman added: ‘We wouldn’t require employers – we’d encourage them.

‘The cost is minimal. Employers don’t even need a fridge, it can be a cool box. It also doesn’t have to be a designated room. It could be part of a room screened off, or an unused meeting room.’

Mr Lansley said: ‘Breast-feeding is one of the best ways to give babies good health, but our society doesn’t always make it easy for new mums to do it. We want to make it easier for new mums to breast-feed.

‘If we can make it easier more mums would breast-feed and they might do it for longer, giving their children the best start in life.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z16wnNGAgU

[BlackVelvet]

This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard and does the business have to provide a creche as well or do they sit the baby next to their desks?