‘A degrading environment’

“I was made to feel like I was a problem, that what I was asking for was too much.”

Tara Mellor

Photo by Matt Wilkinson

A school that failed to provide a breastfeeding teacher with a clean, private space to express milk subjected her to degrading treatment and harassment on the basis of her sex. Sally Gillen reports.

‘A degrading and humiliating environment’

TARA Mellor’s baby was just 12 weeks old when she went back to work. And like 41 per cent of women returning from maternity leave (see Breastfeeding rights, below), Tara was breastfeeding and needed a clean, private space to express milk.

This wasn’t a surprise to managers at The Mirfield Free Grammar (MFG), in West Yorkshire, where Tara (left) was employed as a citizenship teacher. Six months earlier, Tara had submitted a written request for a room.

But on her first day back in September 2020, Tara found there was nowhere for her to express. In pain, Tara raised the issue with her manager, but still nothing was done. Another six requests for a room met with the same response: none were available.

“I was saying I was in a lot of pain to my line manager but I was made to feel like I was a problem, that what I was asking for was too much and I was being unreasonable,” Tara tells Educate. “I was fobbed off, basically.”

Left with no option but to resign

Within weeks a milk build-up caused mastitis and Tara had to take sick leave. She returned and, keen not to take any more time off, she eventually felt she had no choice but to express milk during her 25-minute lunchbreak. The only places she could find were the car park or the toilets.

“It was cold in the toilets and draughty because all the windows were open for ventilation. I had to put my jacket out so I could sit on the floor, which was often covered in urine sprinkles and paper towels from an overflowing bin. Sometimes I was really hungry, so I would have to eat my lunch at the same time,” she says. “It was disgusting.”

By Christmas, the stress had taken a toll. Tara had lost a lot of weight, her hair was falling out and she had lost her ability to grip. Concerned, her GP referred her for multiple sclerosis tests. She was under constant scrutiny at work. On one day alone, four of her lessons were observed. “They were just looking for ways to trip me up,” she says. Eventually, she was signed off sick, before feeling she had no option but to resign.

The union stepped in, supporting Tara to take the school to an employment tribunal under the Equality Act 2010. In January, she won. The landmark ruling that the school’s failings had created a “degrading and humiliating environment” amounting to harassment on the basis of Tara’s sex has implications for all employers who do not provide a clean, private space for women who are breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding rights

THE union’s maternity rights survey 2022 of 3,700 NEU members has revealed that women’s rights to a clean, private space to rest, breastfeed or express are frequently disregarded. Seventy-four per cent were not provided with suitable rest facilities on their return to work. The NEU is calling on all employers to uphold breastfeeding women’s rights at work. We want to see breastfeeding risk assessments, flexible adjustments to work arrangements, suitable rest facilities and dedicated paid breastfeeding breaks.

A little more help

Many other new mums are being subjected to the same degrading and humiliating treatment, findings from a survey by the NEU and charity Maternity Action show (see Breastfeeding rights, left). There are many instances of women being forced to express milk in car parks, store cupboards, unlocked rooms – even a science lab.

Tara’s former colleague at MFG, Claire Pickles, faced similar treatment. But Claire only became aware of it after Tara’s tribunal win was reported in the media. If she had known earlier, she says, it would have given her the confidence to challenge the way she was treated.

Like Tara, despite requests, no room was provided for her to express milk and she was left with no choice but to pump milk while driving home from work. The overall lack of support forced Claire to quit.

“I just felt like I couldn’t be a teacher and a mum,” she says, adding that she would handle things differently now.

“We both loved our jobs,” says Claire. “What happened made me feel like the teaching profession is impossible as a mum, but it’s not.

“We just need a little more help.”