Notes on the breastfeeding period in public sector human resource management

Abstract

This article aims to review the conceptual differences of the rights related to the breastfeeding period, which acquire special relevance in a context of family and food crisis. In this regard, national and international organizations call for reflection and respect for these rights. Subsequently, based on these concepts, some situations will be identified in which the full enjoyment of these rights, both in the face-to-face work modality and in the remote work modalities, would be at risk due to the lack of development and dissemination of fundamental rights or other rights enshrined in national regulations, together with the ignorance of the limits of the directive power of public entities in a context of new forms of work that are still being consolidated, the greater prominence of fundamental rights and new fundamental rights in a globalized world and of constant technological advancement. Thus, despite the fact that there is no scenario in which the directive power of public entities can be conceived as “unlimited”, as well as the existing regulations, at a constitutional and sectorial level, to which we will refer, without prejudice to international agreements, it is essential to issue a guideline by the body responsible for the human resources system in the public sector, in which a gender approach is incorporated for human resources management, guaranteeing the effective exercise of the rights of staff in the breastfeeding period, without limitations and to the full.