Description
The International Labour Organization Convention 183 states that “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.” The convention has been ratified by at least 28 countries.
At the country level, countries including Cambodia and the US require large employers to provide time for mothers to breastfeed. In Cambodia, “Labor Law Article 186 states that enterprises with at least 100 women are required to provide day-care centers or pay child-care fees, provide one hour of paid time off for breastfeeding mothers, and provide nursing rooms at or near the workplace. ”In the US, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires all US employers with 50 or more employees “to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child's birth each time such employee has need to express milk. The employer is not required to compensate an employee receiving reasonable break time for any work time spent for such purpose.”
Lactation breaks are also offered in the health and medical fields. In the family residency program at Canada’s McMaster University, some residents’ placements have lactation facilities on-site. Residents in these placements can negotiate with their supervisors to take breaks to pump or breastfeed.
Implementation lessons learned
Example
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