Submission- Employment Relations, Breaks & Infant Feeding Amendment (May 2008)
Submission to the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee on the Employment Relations (Breaks and Infant Feeding) Amendment Bill
by La Leche League New Zealand Inc
19 May 2008
Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to submit to the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee on the Employment Relations (Breaks and Infant Feeding) Amendment Bill.
La Leche League (LLL) is an international non-governmental not-for-profit non-sectarian organisation whose mission is to help mothers to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information and education; and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother.
La Leche League New Zealand (LLLNZ) has been supporting mothers and babies in New Zealand for over 40 years, and currently has 50 Groups and 140 trained accredited volunteer Leaders working in communities throughout the country. We also provide training and support for other breastfeeding support networks through the Breastfeeding Peer Counsellor Programme.
We have long-standing connections with health professionals, consumers, government agencies and others in the breastfeeding and parenting communities, and are widely recognised as a leading provider of accurate, up-to-date and consistent information and education on all aspects of breastfeeding, including working and breastfeeding.
We agree wholeheartedly with the statement in the Bill that: "Breastfeeding is key to providing the best start for New Zealand infants, and important for both maternal and infant health".
We support the intent of the Bill to provide improved working conditions for breastfeeding mothers in paid employment.
Key points
We welcome the proposed provision for breastfeeding breaks during working hours.
However we are disappointed that the Bill does not provide for breaks to be paid as specified in the ILO Maternity Protection Convention 183:
Article 10.1: "A woman shall be provided with the right to one or more daily breaks or a daily reduction of hours of work to breastfeed her child".
Article 10.2: "These breaks or the reduction of daily hours of work shall be counted as working time and remunerated accordingly".
We would like to see Convention 183 ratified and put into practice in New Zealand. We have no opinion on who should fund the paid breaks - whether employer or taxpayer.
We are also concerned to note that the Bill does not give any guidance on the frequency or length of breaks, or the age of babies and young children to which it applies. The Bill needs to ensure that breastfeeding breaks are frequent enough and long enough to meet the objective of supporting the mother to breastfeed her baby or express her milk, so as to maintain a satisfactory breastfeeding relationship and an adequate milk supply. The breaks need to be available to the mother for as long as she requires them while her baby or young child gradually weans. This may be for up to two years after birth and sometimes more, so as to enable breastfeeding in line with the recommendations of the WHO-UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding:
Paragraph 2.10: "... infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. Thereafter, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond."
Frequent breaks are particularly essential for the first 12 months of a child's life as breast milk will ideally be the predominant source of food until the child is at least a year old. Breaks will still be needed for breastfeeding mothers of babies beyond one year of age, particularly for those in full-time employment or with long daily shifts, and for some mothers of babies beyond two years. We suggest an open-ended approach to this issue so as to support mothers and their young children to continue their breastfeeding relationship for as long as is mutually desired.
We support the proposed legislative provision for workplaces to provide adequate facilities for mothers to breastfeed their babies and/or express and store their breast milk. However, we would like to see more specific definitions in the Bill of what constitutes "reasonable and practicable" so as to put the onus more clearly on employers to provide suitable facilities.
We would like to see this legislation be part of a co-ordinated multi-faceted labour market strategy to support and protect breastfeeding, which would also include:
- longer paid maternity leave and universal income protection/replacement so that mothers do not have to (re)enter the workforce for purely financial reasons before they and their babies are ready, and which enables breastfeeding practices in line with the recommendations of The Global Strategy
- flexible working arrangements so that families' joint childcare and work responsibilities can be more easily managed;
- a credentialling system for breastfeeding-friendly workplaces;
- expectant mothers and fathers being referred to trained breastfeeding peer supporters in their workplaces;
- a credentialling system for breastfeeding-friendly childcare and early childhood education (ECE) facilities;
- a neutral childcare funding system such that subsidies are paid directly to families rather than to childcare and ECE providers. These subsidies influence families' decisions about working and childcare by making homecare of one's own children relatively expensive.
Recommendations
That breastfeeding breaks be paid as per the ILO Maternity Protection Convention 183.
That breaks be of sufficient frequency and length to support and protect an adequate milk supply and satisfactory mother-baby breastfeeding relationship.
That breaks continue to be provided for as many months or years as the mother and baby/child require them.
That the Bill be more specific and rigorous about the requirements for providing adequate facilities for breastfeeding mothers.
That the provisions of this Bill be part of a multi-faceted labour market strategy to support, protect and promote breastfeeding.
References
- WHO-UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, 2003
- International Labour Organisation, Maternity Protection Convention Number 183, 2000
- Innocenti Declaration, 2005
- NZ National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee, Draft National Strategic Plan of Action for Breastfeeding 2008-2012, 2008
- NZ National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee, Background Report - Protecting, Promoting and Supporting Breastfeeding in New Zealand, 2008
Contact:
Barbara Sturmfels, Director
La Leche League New Zealand
021 1635212
09 8461854
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