Breastfeeding: CITE received and responded to complaints from companies

The Commission for Equality in Labor and Employment (CITE) assured just a few days ago that "there have never been any complaints of abuse" of the breastfeeding law by employers. However, last year, the Commission received and responded to a complaint from a business association denouncing the "widespread practice of pediatricians certifying that mothers breastfeed their children up to the age of three" and the emergence of "situations in which doctors declare that mothers breastfeed their children four years and older."

The request for an opinion was submitted to CITE on March 1, 2024, and received a response from the organization a month later. In the document, the employers' association requested clarification on the law, which mandates a two-hour reduction in working hours for mothers after the baby's first birthday. It also denounced increasingly frequent instances of "abuse" and requested clarification on the limits of this situation for cases where the children were already over three years old.

CITE's response reached the association a month later, explaining that there was no age limit in the law. It even clarified that employers who prevented a mother from exercising her right to breastfeed could "engage in direct discrimination with regard to working conditions based on the biological condition of the working woman." Regardless of the child's age.

"As no limit to the exercise of the right has been legislated, with the legal norm stating that 'a mother who breastfeeds her child has the right to be excused from work for this purpose, for the duration of breastfeeding'", with the presentation of a medical certificate "the employer cannot be prevented from exercising this right and make it impossible", responded CITE.

Following the legislative changes proposed by the Minister of Labor at the beginning of the month, which will still be taken to the table of social partners and subject to political debate, with the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, reiterating that he wants to reach the "most consensual proposal possible", the idea of limiting reduced hours for breastfeeding mothers has generated enormous opposition, especially due to statements by the Minister, Maria Palma Ramalho, justifying with "abuses" the need to change the right to reduced hours "during the duration of breastfeeding" to "limit the right to time off work for this purpose until the child is two years old".

Both the Working Conditions Authority (ACT) and CITE have stated that they have no record of complaints from employers about alleged cases of abuse by breastfeeding mothers, in contrast to 23 reported cases of companies attempting to prevent women from exercising their right since 2021. It should be noted, however, that the ACT is only responsible for monitoring employers, not employees.

CITE told Lusa that it had received "one complaint from a woman this year regarding the violation of her right to breastfeeding leave" and two more in 2020. However, it noted that there are cases of women even being forced to demonstrate that they are producing milk (an obvious and flagrant violation of their rights that even constitutes a clear case of harassment). However, it assured that it had never received any complaints from employers.

"Between 2021 and 2024, CITE received no complaints, with only two reports filed by women in 2020. On the employer's side, there were never any complaints of abuse during this period," Carla Tavares, president of that association, told Lusa.

As reported by 24 Notícias , studies reveal that the average breastfeeding duration for Portuguese mothers is around eight months, according to the EPACI 2022–2023 study , which analyzed the eating habits of 2,290 children aged 0 to 3 years, a representative sample of the Portuguese population. Only 21.1% were exclusively breastfed until 6 months. Among immigrant mothers, breastfeeding duration is longer, with an average of 14 months and some cases exceeding 2 years. The study does not report any significant prevalence of breastfeeding until 5 or 6 years.