CIPD Guernsey

Maternity &

Breastfeeding

Survey

March 2015

The CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. The

not-for-profit organisation champions better work and working lives and

has been setting the benchmark for excellence in people and

organisation development for more than 100 years. It has more than

135,000 members across the world, provides thought leadership through

independent research on the world of work, and offers professional

training and accreditation for those working in HR and learning and

development.

Foreword

Locally CIPD Guernsey has

228 members across a

variety of organisations.

The branch aims to engage

not just to engage with its

members but the business

community as a whole. Part

of that engagement is

understanding what is

happening locally on key

topics. Richard Sheldon our

Policy Advisor undertook a

survey amongst our

members and has collated

this report for your reading

and to highlight key issues

to consider. Looking back it

has been a longstanding

anomaly of Guernsey’s

employment laws that there

are no express provisions

dealing with the rights of

either pregnant workers or

new mothers. Despite this

fact, many employers on the

island already recognise the

essential contribution to the

island’s economy made by

the female workforce and

make provision on a

voluntary basis.

It was announced back in

2012 that Guernsey would

finally be taking steps to

introduce legislation to

protect the rights of pregnant

women and provide a

guaranteed period of

maternity leave for new

mothers. Whilst those laws

have not yet been

introduced, Chief minister

Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq

recently stated that “it is

intended that the right to

statutory leave connected

with maternity should be in

force by early 2016, with the

benefit changes to follow in

2017.”

This undoubtedly a positive

step for working mothers in

Guernsey, but the recent

press coverage over

mothers not being allowed to

either breastfeed or express

milk at work shows that

there is still a long way to go

to change attitudes.

I would like to take this

opportunity to thank the

many people who have

responded to the survey. I

have to say, having

reviewed the results, the

overwhelming approach that

most employers take is a

positive one which is

encouraging to see.

Janine Lane

Chair – Guernsey CIPD

Executive summary

Policies used to deal with

uncertainty for employers

Without question one area

employers continue to

struggle with is how to deal

with pregnant workers. This

in part has been driven by

the absence of maternity

legislation, yet at the same

time having sex

discrimination laws in place.

This has led to many

employers being unsure how

to deal with employees who

were pregnant and a look

back over the last few years

demonstrates that this has

led a number of employers

to end up before the

Tribunal. It is perhaps a

product of this uncertainty

that has meant that 98% of

respondents to the survey

have adopted a maternity

policy.

Ante-natal time off

Another encouraging result

was the fact that nearly 71%

of employers already offer

paid time off for pregnant

workers to attend ante-natal

classes. For first time

mothers this process is very

valuable process, especially

for those who do not have

local family to support them.

What was perhaps more

surprising was that this

figure dropped to only 22%

when the question was

asked about men. As a

relatively new father myself,

I found the ante-natal

classes very useful. It will

be interesting to see what

approach the States take on

this issue when the

legislation is published.

Maternity leave v pay

It was interesting to see the

differing approaches taken

by employers to the period

of leave offered against the

period of pay. Overall the

position was that 96% of

employers offered some

form of maternity leave, with

92% offering maternity pay.

When asked what the

maximum period of leave

offered by your company

nearly 72% offered 4 months

or more leave. That figure

nearly halved when looking

at the maximum maternity

pay offered with only 37% of

employers offering 4 months

or more.

Big v small – maternity

leave

As part of the survey we

asked respondents to

confirm the number of staff

they employed, in order to

allow us to analyse the

results a little further. I think

most people would expect to

see significantly more

generous benefits being

offered by the larger

employers, and whilst

undoubtedly they are better,

the gap is not as wide as

many would think. For

example, when you compare

the maximum period of

maternity leave between

those businesses who

employ up to 50 staff with

those who employ more

what you find is that whilst

there are clearly more who

offer 7 to 12 months leave

amongst larger employers

(26.5% against 10.5%),

when you look at those who

offer 2 months or more the

figures are nearly identical

(85% against 84%). This

demonstrates that the

introduction of maternity

leave even for small

employers will have minimal

effect.

Big v small – maternity

pay

Without doubt though the

most surprising finding is

that when it comes to

maternity pay, smaller

employers are arguably

more generous than their

larger counterparts. Whilst

again there are more larger

employers at the top end of

the spectrum with 47%

offering at least 4 months

paid maternity leave,

compared with 20% of

smaller employer, if you then

look at the figures of those

who guarantee at least 2

months paid maternity leave,

the results come out as 80%

for smaller employers

against 71% of larger

employers.

Breastfeeding facilities

One challenge which has

been identified for the HR

community in Guernsey by

the survey results, is that

there is a lack of awareness

over how to handle new

mothers who wish to

breastfeed or express milk

at work. Given that nearly

54% of respondents did not

know what their company’s

position was on this issue is

revealing in itself. For those

who do allow it, the most

common route (59%) was to

allow mothers to use a spare

office. However, slightly

worryingly, 25% used the

toilets. Given the issues of

hygiene for new babies

involved this is something

that needs to be

reconsidered from a health

and safety perspective.

Richard Sheldon

Policy Advisor – Guernsey CIPD

Survey Results

For further information and guidance from CIPD Head Office, please refer to the following:-

Surveys: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/survey-reports/

Policy: http://www.cipd.co.uk/publicpolicy/policy-reports/default.aspx

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Website: http://www.cipd.co.uk/local/guernsey/default.aspx

Email: Guernsey@cipdbranch.co.uk

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