Preventive protection of breastfeeding and sex discrimination in European and national judicial practice: reversal of the burden of proof in cases of incorrect assessment of occupational risks

Abstract

This paper shows how the Court of Justice of the European Union applies Community legislation on discrimination between men and women in employment and occupation in a cross-cutting manner in relation to the preventive guardianship of breastfeeding workers and also to the social security benefit which covers this contingency. The European Court has caused a significant change in Spanish judicial doctrine by considering that the incorrect risk assessment of positions held by breastfeeding workers is discrimination on the basis of sex. Such an understanding implies a reversal of the burden of proof in both European and domestic law, thereby reinforcing the procedural guarantees of the worker. It is sufficient for the latter to provide prima facie evidence of risks to her safety and health and/or her child for the employer to assume the burden of proving otherwise and the absence of discriminatory motive. The requirement of the domestic courts to accredit the existence of a specific risk for the breastfeeding worker and/or her child is thus softened or eliminated, applying the new doctrine both to the evaluation of the risk in the job performed by the breastfeeding worker and in the different measures adopted by the employer to avoid it