Staff members & their soapboxes

Pity the poor Melbourne mother on a Tiger Airways flight who was repeatedly asked by an attendant to hide her breastfeeding baby from other passengers on a flight earlier this month.

You can imagine the scene. The tired mother doing her best to keep her three month old baby from screaming on the flight between the Gold Coast and Melbourne offers her baby a quiet feed. Now most people would neither mind or pay her any attention except for the flight attendant who is out of step with community attitudes – and the law – and who insisted on imposing her own belief system on the poor mother.

The crew member first of all asked if she had a blanket to cover him and then before even waiting for an answer she put something over the baby, saying some people may not like to see it.

The mother then turned to her fellow passenger who assured her that he was not “offended” at all.

But still the crew member persisted, saying that others might be.

Tiger Airways has come out this morning and told The Australian that it will apologise to the mother, the flight member has been “disciplined” and all staff will undergo training to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

But the damage to the brand has already been done. This incident does highlight an important issue for entrepreneurs. All staff hold strong personal beliefs on anything from breastfeeding babies to religion. Staff, especially those who deal with the public, need to be told – and then continually reminded – that their personal views are not to be expressed on the job.

And you can start with breastfeeding. All staff should know that laws protect breastfeeding women in public whether on trains, at work or in cafés.

SmartCompany legal expert Peter Vitalie warns that there are special provisions dealing with breastfeeding mothers under Victorian law. “You can’t discriminate against women who are breastfeeding whether at work or in restaurants,” he says.

“People may set reasonable terms for provision of services if the services are to be provided in a special manner but that does not include breastfeeding. It is 2009 and the community doesn’t think there is anything unusual about women breastfeeding.”

The Federal Discrimination Act specifically states that people can’t discriminate against breastfeeding mothers. Which of course raises the interesting question about Federal Parliament. Is the law being broken when parliamentarians are asked to leave when feeding their babies on the job?

“That’s an interesting question,” says Vitalie.

So tell your staff if they see a breastfeeding mother to leave her be. Or better still: get her a glass of water.