Chicago’s WaterSaver Faucet Company Limits Bathroom Breaks for Employees

Why?

This all began when the CEO of WaterSaver claimed that his company lost over 120 hours of production time due to employees abusing their bathroom privileges.  While there may be some truth to this for a few reasons, the rules the company is implementing seem very unfair and an invasion of personal privacy and working rights.  The workers have a set number of break periods that add up to one hour per day.  During that period, they will not be monitored or recorded for the time they spend off of the work floor or in the restroom.  The CEO feels that workers are abusing the privilege to talk on their cell phones and socialize since no phones or electronic devices are permitted on the factory floor.

How?

To manage this problem, WaterSaver has established a policy to regulate the amount of time spent in the bathroom. WaterSaver explained that an excessive use of the bathroom was equivalent to 60 minutes or more over a 10-working-day period.  This equals up to a mere six minutes per day!

WaterSaver began to regulate and monitor bathroom use by implementing access control swipe card systems on restrooms located around their property.  Employees are now forced to swipe in and out of the restroom to indicate the amount of time spent.  This will be recorded, and if any employee appears to be abusing their privileges, they will be disciplined according to the company’s three stage process.

There are also incentives that have been added to award employees for following procedures, and regulate their bathroom use.  Although you will find as you continue to read that these incentives are a bit extreme, and can cause other problems for personnel and the business itself in the future.

Health Costs

To make up for the lost hours, WaterSaver has adopted a system where workers can earn a gift card of up to $20 per month if they do not use the bathroom during work hours. This is incentivizing people to not use the bathroom during the day and be rewarded for it.  This is a detriment to people’s health, rewarding them for “holding it,” and damaging their bodies.

Given that the human body cannot regulate its fluids right when you would like for it to, it is unreasonable to have these controls set into place. To make matters worse, the company does not provide sick days for their employees, forcing them to come into work in poor condition in many cases.  Setting them up for failure because they may need to be in the restroom to take care of themselves while sick on the job.

Union Pushback

The union, Teamsters local 743, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board saying that WaterSaver unfairly disciplined about 20 workers for abusing bathroom privileges.

The Union believes that monitoring bathroom times is an invasion of privacy, and they should be protected from this by law.  The Teamsters filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board attempting to fight against this policy.

The company has kept spreadsheet for every union worker on staff.  Because of this fact, the local union is fighting back with everything they have to put an end to the harassment.

Several people have come together to picket in front of the building with signs and slogans trying to bring this situation into the public eye.  It is one thing to limit break times, but another to closely monitor the amount of time spent inside of the restroom.  This is an invasion of privacy and worker’s rights.  Other methods and rules should be established by the company to better track their employees, and hold them accountable for their actions in the workplace.

Nick Quinlan works as a consultent for health and safety for many employers, and works hard to try and balance workplace productivity and employee health. To make sure your company doesn’t risk a lawsuit or a strike from a cost saving or productivity increasing measure, he highly recommends visiting http://www.ecompliance.com. You can learn more about Nick by visiting his Google+.