Guidance from an HR consultant in Ipswich on your legal duties when an employee returns to work and is still breastfeeding or expressing milk.
I’ve been working with a few clients recently who’ve had employees come back from maternity leave still breastfeeding. In every case, the business owner wanted to do the right thing but had no idea what the law actually required of them.
That gap between good intentions and legal compliance is where problems start.
A misstep here can lead to discrimination or harassment claims, and if it reaches a tribunal, the financial damages are uncapped.
With World Breastfeeding Week falling in August each year, it’s a good prompt to check where you stand. Let me walk you through what you need to know.
The risk most small businesses don’t see coming
When a member of your team is breastfeeding or expressing milk after returning from maternity leave, you have specific legal obligations. Most business owners I speak to are surprised by how much is covered.
If you fail to provide a private space for expressing, or refuse to allow reasonable breaks, an employee could argue she was forced out. That opens the door to a constructive dismissal claim.
Any dismissal or penalty connected to breastfeeding could also be ruled automatically unfair.
You don’t need to have acted with bad intentions for a claim to succeed. A manager who brushes off a request, or inconsistent handling across your team, can be enough to create a problem. The tribunal won’t care whether it was deliberate. They’ll look at what happened and what you failed to put in place.
Your duty to carry out a risk assessment
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. What catches people out is that this duty extends beyond pregnancy. It applies to employees who’ve returned from maternity leave and are still nursing.
If you haven’t reviewed the working conditions for a breastfeeding employee, you’re already falling short of what’s legally expected.
Providing a suitable space
You must give your employee somewhere appropriate to breastfeed or express milk. Both HMRC and HSE guidance are clear on what counts as suitable: it needs to be clean, private, and dignified.
A toilet cubicle does not meet that standard. I know that sounds obvious, but it comes up more often than you’d expect.
You don’t need to build a dedicated room. A spare office or a private area with a lock, a chair, and a surface will do. The point is that your employee should be able to use the space comfortably and without embarrassment.
Flexibility around working hours
The Employment Rights Act 1996 says you should reasonably accommodate requests for adjusted hours, changed shifts, or flexible breaks to allow for breastfeeding or expressing.
ACAS guidance goes further and encourages employers to allow short, unpaid breaks or slightly adjusted schedules. You’re not legally required to pay for these breaks, but you are expected to be reasonable about allowing them.
If an employee feels pressured or embarrassed about asking for time or space, that could form the basis of a harassment claim. Making someone feel comfortable enough to raise the conversation matters.
What does getting it right actually look like?
As part of our HR consultancy services in Ipswich, we regularly help businesses put simple, practical measures in place for exactly this situation. The fundamentals are straightforward:
- Have a written policy that your managers know about, so requests are dealt with consistently
- Identify a private space that isn’t a bathroom
- Be willing to flex break times where needed
- Talk to the employee before she comes back from leave, so she knows what to expect and feels supported from day one
That last point is one I always emphasise. A returning mother who knows her employer has already thought about this is far more likely to come back feeling settled and committed. She’s also more likely to stay.
Why this matters for your bottom line
Coming back from maternity leave is already a difficult transition. If the experience of returning feels unsupportive, you’re far more likely to lose someone you’ve spent time developing.
Retention is the real business case here. Losing an employee at this stage costs you recruitment fees, training time, and the knowledge they’ve built up in your business.
Parental rights are also being strengthened under the Employment Rights Act, with enhanced maternity protections expected in 2027. The scrutiny on how employers handle these situations is only going to increase. Sorting your approach out now saves you from having to unpick a problem later.
Questions worth asking yourself
Before you move on, it’s worth pausing to consider a few things:
- Do your managers actually know what to do if a breastfeeding employee makes a request?
- Have you identified a suitable private space in your workplace, or would you be scrambling to find one?
- Is there a written policy in place, or are you relying on people to figure it out as they go?
- When was the last time you reviewed your risk assessment process for returning mothers?
If you’re unsure about any of those, it’s worth getting some support sooner rather than later.
How we can help
We can carry out a risk assessment for new and expectant mothers, put a clear breastfeeding and expressing policy in place for your business, and make sure your managers are confident handling requests properly.
As an outsourced HR consultant in Ipswich, I work with businesses like yours to get these things right without overcomplicating them.
If you’re not sure whether your current setup covers what the law requires, get in touch and we can have a chat about it. No obligation, just a straightforward conversation about where you are and what might need to change.
Call us on 01473 653000 or email hello@pshumanresources.co.uk.
