World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action : WABA

To ensure working women's rights to maternity protection through ILO Conventions, a coalition of NGOs was formed, comprising groups from the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) , International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), and the LINKAGES project, with technical assistance from the International Maternal and Child Health Section, Uppsala University, Sweden (IMCH) and UNICEF. On learning that the International Labor Organization (ILO) would revise its Maternity Protection Convention (103) and recommendation (95), WABA’s Women and Work Task Force (WWTF) began a campaign to be part of the revision process The seed for the Maternity Protection Campaign was planted during the WABA Workshop, "Women and Work - From Human Rights to Creative Solutions" which was organised in June 1998 in Quezon City, Philippines. This workshop brought to attention the opportunity to influence the process of revising ILO C103 on MP. Two primary reasons were given by the ILO for revising Convention 103. These were : a) increases in labour market participation by women and b) a low number of ratifications.

After winning a place for breastfeeding in the revised Convention draft in June 1999, WABA’s strategy consisted of three parts:

informing our breastfeeding networks about the issues of the ILO campaign;
stimulating and enabling national and regional actions; and
preparing a Maternity Protection Coalition (MPC) of NGOs for the June ILO Conference.

A small team met in May of 2000 to develop an MPC position and prepare advocacy materials for Geneva. The coalition’s goals were:
For the Convention,

At least four months paid maternity leave after birth
Two half hour remunerated breastfeeding breaks daily for up to one year after birth
A clean space for breastfeeding or expression of breastmilk at or near the workplace

For the Recommendation,

At least six month paid maternity leave after birth

Partly through hard work and strategic action, the Coalition was able to join governments, trade unions, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and others in successfully advocating the passage through the ILO Conference in June 2000 of Maternity Protection Convention 183 and Recommendation 191.
Click here to read more background information.

Highlights of the outcomes include

Minimum maternity leave was raised from 12 to 14weeks in the Convention and from 14 to 18 weeks in the Recommendation.
For a period after her maternity leave, a woman cannot be fired because she is breastfeeding.
In the Convention, breastfeeding breaks are recognized as a woman’s right
Combining breastfeeding breaks to shorten the work-day, a provision from Recommendation 95, is now part of the Convention

Click here to read the full list of MPC perspective about the gains and losses of the new Convention as compared to the previous Convention.

Gains & Losses
What are the pluses and minuses of these agreementsfor breastfeeding women at work?

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.

ILO / Maternity Protection (MP) Campaign