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EasyJet crew win ‘landmark’ breastfeeding battle
Two EasyJet cabin crew members have a won a landmark victory over working hours after saying they wished to continue breastfeeding after their maternity leave ends.
Unite, the union that supported the women, said the decision will have implications for working women everywhere returning to work after maternity leave while still breastfeeding.
With the support of Unite Legal Services two members of EasyJet’s Bristol-based cabin crew, Sara Ambacher and Cynthia McFarlane, took the low-cost airline to an employment tribunal claiming its failure to limit their duty days to eight hours to allow them to express milk or to offer them ground duties whilst they continued to breastfeed was discriminatory.
Yesterday (Thursday) the employment tribunal in Bristol agreed, ruling that EasyJet’s failure to facilitate the mothers amounted to indirect sex discrimination and breached the Employment Rights Act under which the airline should have reduced the breastfeeding mothers’ hours, found them alternative duties or suspended them on full pay.
The women knew they weren’t permitted to ‘express’ during a flight and so, on the recommendation of their GPs, they asked EasyJet to roster them for a maximum of eight hours to enable them to express their milk either side of the shift.
EasyJet turned down their request on health and safety grounds and offered standard, unrestricted duty days of 12 hours which the women said would have significantly increased the risk of mastitis and painful, engorged breasts.
Managers ignored doctors’ advice, but admitted to Googling ‘breast feeding risks’ on the internet before coming up with a series of unworkable ‘solutions’, the union argued.
Following the legal case being lodged by Unite, EasyJet agreed the could do ground duties for six months but was unwilling to extend the time period because they considered the women’s wish to continue breastfeeding was ‘a choice’.
The tribunal ruled the action was discriminatory to attempt to limit the time period during which the mothers could continue to breastfeed.
EasyJet said: "EasyJet wants to ensure that women can continue to breastfeed whilst working at easyJet and we are reviewing the working practices for our cabin crew to ensure they can do so."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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