Breastfeeding Need Not Be Accommodated by Telework

• Author: Yosie Saint-Cyr
• Date: January 22, 2015

In Flatt v. Treasury Board (Department of Industry), the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board has rejected a public servant’s complaint that Industry Canada discriminated against her on the basis of family status when it refused to let her work from home full-time while breastfeeding.

Facts of the case

Laura Marie Flatt is a spectrum management officer, working for the Spectrum Management Operations Branch of Industry Canada in Burlington, Ontario. The Spectrum Management Operations Branch oversees the radio frequency spectrum in Canada. A spectrum management officer has both technical and administrative duties, which may require working from an office or visiting licensees to address problems.

Between September 2007 and March 2013, Flatt had three children and took three maternity leaves. After each leave, she requested a telework arrangement to help her manage her new family obligations. The employer agreed to the initial two arrangements—first for one day of telework per week, then for two days. During her third maternity leave, Flatt requested one year of full-time telework or, alternatively, two days of telework and three days in office on a modified schedule, in order to allow her to breastfeed her new son. The employer initially accepted the alternative proposal, but later had second thoughts, saying it was only willing to allow her to telework one day a week. As an alternative, the employer said Flatt could take an extended leave of absence without pay.

As a result, on March 28, 2013, Flatt launched a grievance alleging that the employer discriminated against her on the grounds of sex and family status when it refused her request to telework from home full-time for a year following the end of her 12-month maternity leave in March 2013, to breastfeed her child. In her grievance, Flatt stated:

“I have a need to change the way I work because of breastfeeding… Management has forced me into an unsuitable situation and the hardship of having to take leave without pay.”

In response to the grievance, the employer argued that the decision to allow Flatt to work from home five days a week in this case would have a profound impact on the organization and could cause undue hardship. According to the employer, Industry Canada had decided in April 2012 that, due to downsizing (between 2009 and 2013, the number of personnel in the spectrum management operations branch, where Flatt worked, shrank from 17 to 11), it could no longer allow employees...