Adequate spaces at work for nursing women to express and preserve milk

Constitutionality review as per a citizen request (Manuel Esteban García Orrego) of the act 1823 of 2017 (partial)

Date:  04/15/2020

Judge-Rapporteur:  Antonio José Lizarazo Ocampo

Concurrence:  Diana Constanza Fajardo Rivera.  Gloria Stella Ortiz

Dissent:  Alberto Rojas Ríos (partial)

The reviewed provisions. The challenged provisions ordered private and public employers to adequate spaces for nursing women to express milk whenever they need to and be provided with appropriate breast milk preservation conditions so they can take it home to serve their children during their absence.  The deadline to comply with this regulation is two years, except for companies with less than 1000 employees, whose term is five years.

The plaintiffs’ arguments.  In three different legal actions, joined for the purposes of the decision, the claimants argued that the longer term for small companies goes against the constitutional principle of equality, harming the rights to breastfeed of nursing women who work for small business.

Issue: Can different deadlines for employers to comply with the law, according to the size of the companies, violates the breastfeeding rights of nursing women working for small businesses?

Ruling and reasoning.   Although the Court ruled CONSTITUTIONAL the establishment of the general requirement, it refrained to decide about the different deadline for private sector employers depending on the size of their business.  The Forum found the charges lacking the technical requirements to appropriately address the unconstitutionality claim.

Consequently, in this last charge, the Court did not decide in substance.