Gains
SCOPE: The Convention covers all employed women, in-cluding those in the informal sector who have an employer.

• A new provision on health protection of pregnant andbreastfeeding women has been added.
• Minimum maternity leave was raised from 12 to 14weeks in the Convention and from 14 to 18 weeks in theRecommendation.
• A six-week period of compulsory postnatal leave wasreturned to the Convention; the length had not been speci-fied in the previous draft. The Convention allows na-tions to change this directive if workers, employers, andgovernments all agree to shorten compulsory leave orhave none at all.
• For a period after her maternity leave, a woman cannotbe fired because she is breastfeeding. If a breastfeedingwoman is fired and files a complaint, her employer hasthe burden of proving that breastfeeding was not thecause of her termination.
• In the Convention, breastfeeding breaks are recognisedas a woman’s right.
• Combining breastfeeding breaks to shorten the work-day, a provision from Recommendation 95, is now partof the Convention.
• The provision that provides for breastfeeding breaks onpaid time, counted as work time, was successfully de-fended against deletion or downgrading.
• Obtaining a medical certificate to qualify for longer ormore frequent nursing breaks could be a hardship forwomen with little access to a doctor. The new Recom-mendation allows for “other appropriate certification asdetermined by national law and practice” as an alterna-tive to a medical certificate.

Losses
SCOPE: Nations can exclude categories of employed womenif employers, workers, and government agree. However, theymust report periodically on what they are doing to extendthe coverage of the Convention to those groups.

• Convention 103 protected women from dismissal for anyreason while on maternity leave. Convention 183 pro-vides longer protection but allows dismissal for reasonsunrelated to maternity.
• The duration of a woman’s entitlement to nursing breaksis left up to national law and practice. Previously noduration was specified.
• The length and number of breastfeeding breaks werestated in Convention 3 as two half-hour breaks daily.The new Convention specifies one or more daily breaksand leaves the exact number and length up to nationallaw and practice.
• Recommendation 95 encouraged member states to ad-vance nursing breaks to 1½ hours daily. There is nosuch language in the new recommendation.
• Recommendation 95 suggested subsidising the costs ofworkplace facilities at the expense of the community orby compulsory social insurance. The new recommenda-tion does not say who should pay for the facilities.