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Toilet punishments are for loo-sers

Tuesday 9th March 2010

By Mike Jones

Employers should not be able to penalise staff for using the toilet in work time, and should provide their employees with clean, modern lavatories.

That is the plea from the TUC which is calling for a change in the law to bring workplace loos into the 21st century.

Back in 2003 when the TUC first launched its Gotta Go campaign, research revealed that across the UK many workers had no access to toilets or had to use dirty, poorly maintained ones. Others were docked pay for needing to use the loo, and had to ask if they could be excused to spend a penny. Six years on it seems the situation has barely changed.

A new TUC report - Give Us a (Loo) Break - says toilet breaks are not a luxury, but a basic human need, and employers who don't provide staff with toilet facilities are breaking the law. It finds examples of staff having to put their hands up to use the toilet, record the number of times they nip to the loo each day or travel a mile to pee.

The TUC report is critical of employers who still believe that employees should go to the loo in their own time. Others plan work schedules that take no account of toilet breaks or allow a work culture to develop where use of the toilet is frowned upon.

TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Employers shouldn't be mean and penny pinching over their employees' need to use the loo. They should trust staff and let them take a few minutes away from their work if they need to go.

"Dickensian attitudes to toilet breaks have no place in the modern workplace. Employees should be free to go to the toilet in work time, and not have to raise their hands for permission as if they were back in school, or have their employers keep notes on how long or how often they go for. And when staff do get the loo, they have the right to expect clean, well-ventilated facilities."

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