{"id":10075,"date":"2016-09-30T15:31:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T14:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10075"},"modified":"2016-10-03T15:15:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T14:15:03","slug":"easyjet-staff-breast-feeding-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10075","title":{"rendered":"easyJet: Staff breast feeding victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Expectant mothers and mothers of young children have never had it worse in the workplace \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a wide-ranging Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) study<\/a> published earlier this year found that the vast majority of working mothers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 77 per cent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have experienced negative treatment at work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And an astounding 1 in 9 reported losing their jobs or being forced to leave as a result.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But against this dismal backdrop for working mothers who are discriminated against at every turn, Unite yesterday (September 29) secured a landmark victory.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two Bristol-based cabin crew members, Sara Ambacher and Cynthia McFarlane were breastfeeding their young sons Sydney and Eli when they returned to work and knew they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t express milk during a flight. (Cynthia and Eli are pictured).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They had asked their employer easyJet to limit their duty days to eight hours to allow them to express milk, or conversely, to offer them ground duties, as recommended by their GPs. easyJet refused both requests.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultimate solution was to offer the cabin crew members unrestricted duty days of 12 hours \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an arrangement that may have increased their risk of mastitis, a condition that results in painful inflammation of the breasts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Declined <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Inexplicably, easyJet declined the women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work eight hour duty days on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098health and safety\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 grounds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although in their training literature easyJet recognises breastfeeding as being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098globally recognised human right\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 where passengers are concerned, their position did not extend to its cabin crew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the support of Unite legal services, the cabin crew took the airline to an employment tribunal and won their case, with the judge ruling yesterday (September 30) that the employer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions were discriminatory.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The airline disregarded the advice of four GPs; failed to carry out their own risk assessments despite having a dedicated health and safety team and failed to send the women to be assessed by occupational health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Instead, managers admit to Googling \u00e2\u20ac\u0098breast feeding risks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on the internet before coming up with a series of unworkable \u00e2\u20ac\u0098solutions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 each of which involved Sara and Cynthia suffering a significant detriment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the legal case was lodged, easyJet agreed to allow the mothers six months of ground duties but were unwilling to extend beyond this time period, arguing that after the six months, the women continuing to breastfeed was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a choice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The employment tribunal agreed with Unite that this was discriminatory because by limiting the time period during which they could do ground duties, management was effectively making the choice for them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite legal officer Nicky Marcus hailed the ruling, calling it \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba ground-breaking victory which has wider implications for all working women particularly those in atypical workplaces like cabin crew.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe days of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going back to work so I will have to give up breastfeeding\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are over,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has tens of thousands of female cabin crew members across the major airlines and we will be working with those airlines to ensure that they adopt policies and practices that reflect this ruling.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another Unite victory <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unite executive director of legal services Howard Beckett called the ruling \u00e2\u20ac\u015banother victory for Unite legal services\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe continue to show we will fight the major battles for our members – industrially, politically and in the courts.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis victory comes on the back of the Unite holiday pay case, Unite ensuring members rights are protected in the workplace. Unite would like to thank Thompsons Solicitors for their representation, Thompsons continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our movement.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ruling comes just a month after the government announced<\/a> it would be drawing up plans to encourage employers to help new mothers breastfeed in the workplace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Business minister Margot James said the government \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwill continue to make the case for inclusive workplaces, where everyone, mothers as well as fathers, can reach their full potential. This is good news for businesses and the economy as well as individual employees.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government encourages breastfeeding and recommends that employers enable women to breastfeed at work as a matter of best practice.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer for equalities Siobhan Endean noted that Unite has long been \u00e2\u20ac\u015bworking hard to ensure women workers have a safe working environment when returning to work after maternity leave.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt’s very simple for employers to enable women to continue to breastfeed on return to work with short breaks to allow feeding of a baby or a private lockable room to enable women to express breast milk,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am delighted by the outcome of this case and would urge women to join their union and ask their union rep for help with pregnancy, maternity leave and returning to work. In most cases, Unite has agreed policies with companies to support new mums.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out more about rights at work for breastfeeding mums here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expectant mothers and mothers of young children have never had it worse in the workplace \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a wide-ranging Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) study published earlier this year found that the vast majority of working mothers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 77 per cent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have experienced negative treatment at work.   And an astounding 1 in 9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[361,379,354,209],"wps_subtitle":"Ruling hailed as working women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights result","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10076,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075\/revisions\/10076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}