By: Norma Villalobos
Recently, the Legislative Assembly approved through Decree No. 510 the “Law Love Converted into Food for the Promotion, Protection and Support of Breastfeeding” (Ley Amor Convertido en Alimento para el Fomento, Protección y Apoyo a la Lactancia Materna), which aims to guarantee the right of all girls and boys to breastfeed through the adoption of measures to ensure adequate environments and conditions to promote, protect and support breastfeeding prioritizing the first thousand days of life, promoting safe and sufficient nutrition for infants.
Among the provisions contained in this law, the obligations imposed on employers stand out:
- To ensure compliance with the labor benefit in favor of every working woman, who, once her maternity leave has ended, will have the right to a daily one-hour break in the workday to breastfeed her daughter or son, for a period of six months postpartum, a break that may be divided into two breaks of 30 minutes each. This right cannot be compensated or substituted by any other right.
- Establish a breastfeeding room within the workplace, which is hygienic, so that mothers can express and store breast milk.
Compliance with these obligations will be inspected by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and the Ministry of Health and non-compliance will be sanctioned in accordance with the sanctioning regime established by the same Law.
The obligation to install Lactation Rooms in the Work Centers will be enforceable to the employers, 90 days after the entry into force of the Regulations of the Law which will indicate the minimum conditions that such Rooms must comply with.
This Law was published in the Official Gazette number 194, Volume 437, of October 14 of the current year and will enter effect 180 days after its publication, in April 2023, while repealing the Law for the Promotion, Protection and Support of Breastfeeding.