Not providing private breastfeeding area was sex discrimination, tribunal rules

Gibbins said she felt "vulnerable, degraded and concerned for her privacy"

A Cardiff-based NHS board discriminated against a healthcare support worker on the basis of sex, a tribunal has ruled, after it failed to provide a private area for the worker to express breast milk.

Robyn Gibbins told the tribunal that she was not given a room with a door that locked when she came back to work following maternity leave. 

On one occasion, a male colleague walked in on her while she was expressing. The board suggested that she prop a chair against a door to lock it, Gibbins claimed.

The tribunal ruled this was sex discrimination as it caused Gibbins to feel humiliated by the lack of a private space to express.

"Health and safety regulations require employers to provide suitable facilities for breastfeeding mothers to rest, including facilities to lie down,” Annie Long, solicitor at law firm Howard Kennedy, told HR magazine.

“Employers must conduct general and individual risk assessments for breastfeeding parents. They need to consider how to avoid risks to the individual employee. This may include changing aspects of their working conditions or hours, or offering suitable alternative employment."


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Gibbins worked at Cardiff and Vale University's local health board from 2019. In July 2021 she emailed her manager to say she was planning to continue breastfeeding when she returned to work.

Gibbins requested a lockable room to breastfeed in, the tribunal heard, in order to maintain her privacy. However, when she returned to work in August 2021, Gibbins learned that the lock had not been fitted.

The tribunal heard that, instead, she was given a sign to put on the door and told to put a chair against the door to lock it, which she worried was a fire hazard. Gibbins told the tribunal that she felt “vulnerable, degraded and concerned for her privacy”.

The board also did not conduct a risk assessment for two days after her return to work, which Gibbins said made her feel unsafe.

In October, Gibbins was told that a lock, which cost £5.50, had been fitted on one of the doors in her ward.

When Gibbins submitted a grievance about her treatment, she was told that “things would be different” after her second pregnancy. 

However, the tribunal heard that in 2023, when she returned to work, there was only one room with a lock available at certain times. Gibbins needed to express three times a day to maintain her comfort.

Gibbins told the tribunal that this made her worried about being exposed to infectious diseases and contaminating her milk. She also stated that felt like a “burden”, and claimed she was not given anywhere to sterilise her equipment. 

Judge Harfield ruled that this was discrimination related to sex, as Gibbins felt humiliated by the lack of a locked room. 

“Expressing is an intimate, personal activity where what are appropriate arrangements will vary from individual to individual,” Harfield ruled.

“Different people will have different expectations and preferences as to what constitutes privacy for them. It is important that an expressing mother feels secure and relaxed when expressing because otherwise expressing may not be effective.”


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Employers must ensure the privacy of breastfeeding staff, Long explained.

She added: “The failure to provide suitable facilities will not always amount to harassment related to sex but did in this case: the employee had requested a lockable room and the failure to provide this had the effect of creating a humiliating environment for her. 

“The key takeaway for employers is to treat it as an issue of dignity and privacy.”

Risk assessments should be conducted to ensure that workplaces do not pose a risk to the health of breastfeeding staff, Victoria Regan, a partner at law firm Loch Law added.

Speaking to HR magazine, she said: “Once informed that an employee wishes to continue breastfeeding, employers need to conduct a specific risk assessment. 

“Certain workplaces may present extra risks to breastfeeding mothers and their babies. If so, it will be necessary to consider suitable alternative roles or suspension on full pay until the risk is removed.”

Employers could also consider flexible working arrangements for employees who are breastfeeding, according to Cindy Gunn, group head of people at staffing firm Gi Group.

“Flexibility in working hours is essential, where possible, to allow the employee to fulfil all of their parenting responsibilities when they need to and fit this around their work requirements,” she told HR magazine. 

“As always in these situations, listening, understanding, communication and flexibility are crucial.”