According to Tehy President Millariikka Rytkönen, every breastfeeding parent must be allowed to breastfeed their child during working hours.
– Many employers are already giving their employees paid breastfeeding breaks, but this matter must not be left to the kindness of the employer. The right to breastfeed must be included in the collective agreement, Rytkönen states.
Tehy’s Rytkönen points out that the family leave reform has led more and more mothers to return to work while their child is still nursing. However, the reform did nothing to account for breastfeeding or set any breastfeeding breaks.
– It is time for Finland to join the other Nordic countries in this matter as well: unlike Norway, Finland has yet to ratify the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Maternity Protection Convention, which protects employees’ right to breastfeed. Norway allows mothers by law to take a one-hour paid break for breastfeeding each working day, and collective agreements have even better terms, says Rytkönen.
Tehy wants Finnish nurses to have similar rights as those in Norway.
Finnish lawmakers drew attention to the lack of breastfeeding breaks as far back as 2002: the Constitutional Law Committee stated in an opinion that in the absence of statutory paid breastfeeding breaks, families were unable to choose whether the family leave would be taken by the mother or the father of the child.
– Paid breastfeeding breaks for mothers returning to work would increase fathers’ use of their right to family leave, thereby improving gender equality, Millariikka Rytkönen says.
The negotiations for a new collective agreement in the healthcare and social welfare sector started this week with Local Government and County Employers KT.
Enquiries: Tehy President Millariikka Rytkönen, requests for interview through Special Advisor Mila Huovinen, [email protected], tel. +358 400 540 005
