We would like to address an incident that happened at our Leyton branch last week, when a member of our staff asked a mother to stop breastfeeding her baby following a complaint by another customer. This should never have happened and we are extremely upset to learn that it did. This is the complete opposite of our values as a family-friendly business and we are taking it very seriously to ensure it never happens again.
The staff member involved made the wrong decision. We have spoken to them to make sure they fully understand how they should have dealt with the situation in the right way. While our staff do receive training when they start employment with us, we recognise that we could do more to support them on an ongoing basis. As a small, independent business, we sometimes encounter steep learning curves, and this is certainly one of them. Staff across all our branches will now be receiving additional, specific training on the Equality Act. We have already started rolling this out.
We have spoken to the family involved to offer our sincerest apologies, and would also like to take this opportunity to apologise publicly. As parents ourselves, the leadership team of this business wholeheartedly support mothers’ rights to breastfeed in public places and we hope that the family, and the wider public, will be assured that we are doing everything we can to live our values as a family-friendly brand.
Sara Ibrahim, Director, Smoke & Pepper