Breastfeeding at work: what employers actually need to do

Support to help you meet your legal obligations when an employee is breastfeeding or expressing milk at work.

If you've got a team member returning from maternity leave who plans to breastfeed or express, you have specific legal duties as an employer.

Most business owners I speak to have no idea what those duties are.

Get it wrong and you could face a discrimination or harassment claim. Tribunal awards in these cases can be uncapped.

With World Breastfeeding Week running from 1-7 August, now's a good time to check you're covered. Here's what you need to know.

Myth: you only need to think about this during pregnancy

A common assumption is that once an employee has had her baby and returned to work, your health and safety obligations around her pregnancy are done.

That's not the case. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, you're required to carry out a risk assessment for new and expectant mothers. That obligation extends to employees who've come back from maternity leave and are still nursing.

So if someone on your team is breastfeeding after their return, the risk assessment requirement still applies.

Myth: any private space will do

You do need to provide somewhere suitable for an employee to breastfeed or express milk. But "suitable" has a specific meaning here.

It needs to be clean, private and appropriate. Both HMRC and HSE guidance are clear that a toilet cubicle doesn't meet that standard. I see this come up more often than you'd expect.

The good news is you don't need a purpose-built room. A spare office works. A quiet area with a lock on the door, a chair and a surface is enough. The key point is dignity. Your employee needs to be able to use the space without feeling uncomfortable or exposed.

Myth: you have to pay for breastfeeding breaks

Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, you should reasonably accommodate requests for adjusted hours, changed shift patterns or flexible breaks to allow breastfeeding or expressing.

ACAS guidance goes further and encourages employers to allow short, unpaid breaks or slight adjustments to working hours for this purpose.

However, you're not legally required to pay for time taken to breastfeed or express. That's worth knowing, because it's a question I get asked regularly.

Myth: if you're not being hostile, you can't face a claim

You don't have to be deliberately difficult for a legal claim to arise. If an employee feels pressured or embarrassed about breastfeeding at work, that alone could form the basis of a harassment claim.

As an employer, you should be doing whatever is reasonably possible to make sure a returning mother feels comfortable asking for space and time.

And the risks go further than harassment. If an employee feels she has no choice but to leave because you've refused to provide a private space or allow breaks, she could bring a constructive dismissal claim. If she's dismissed or penalised in any way connected to breastfeeding, that dismissal could be found to be automatically unfair.

Inconsistent treatment from a line manager, or simply failing to put the basics in place, can be enough to trigger a claim. Intent doesn't matter as much as impact.

What does good look like in practice?

Getting this right doesn't require a huge amount of effort. There are a few practical steps that make a real difference:

• Put a written policy in place so that managers handle requests consistently rather than making it up as they go along
• Identify a suitable private space (not a bathroom) that can be used for expressing
• Build in reasonable flexibility around break times
• Have a conversation with the employee before she returns from maternity leave, so she knows what's been arranged and feels supported from day one

That last point matters more than people realise. An employee who comes back knowing her employer has already thought about this is far more likely to return settled and committed. She's also more likely to stay.

Why this matters for your business

Beyond the legal obligations, there's a strong commercial reason to get this right.

Coming back from maternity leave is already a period where employees are more likely to consider whether they want to stay. If the return experience feels difficult or unsupported, you're at real risk of losing someone you've invested time and energy in developing.

Retention is expensive. Replacing a good employee costs far more than putting a few simple arrangements in place.

It's also worth noting that parental rights are being strengthened under the Employment Rights Act, with enhanced maternity protections expected from 2027. This area is going to receive more attention, not less. Through my HR consultancy services in Thanet, I'm already helping businesses prepare for these changes so they're not caught off guard.

Sorting your approach out now is much simpler than dealing with a problem after it's escalated.

Questions worth asking yourself

If you've got employees who might return from maternity leave and breastfeed, it's worth reflecting on where you stand:

• Do your managers know what they're legally required to provide for a breastfeeding employee?
• Have you identified a private, clean space in your workplace that could be used for expressing?
• Would a returning employee know before her first day back what arrangements are in place for her?
• Is there anything in your current setup that could leave an employee feeling unsupported or embarrassed?
• Do you have a written policy that covers breastfeeding and expressing at work?

How I can help

I can carry out a risk assessment for new and expectant mothers, help you put a straightforward breastfeeding and expressing policy together, and make sure your managers understand how to handle these requests properly.

If you're not confident that your current setup covers everything that's legally required, it's worth having a conversation about it.

As an outsourced HR consultant in Thanet, I work with small businesses across East Kent to get these things right before they become a problem.

Get in touch and we can talk it through. A quick discovery call is often all it takes to work out where the gaps are and what needs to happen next.