Bathroom Breaks
Fair bathroom breaks aren’t a privilege. As all working people know, when you gotta go, you gotta go, and denying workers their rights to take care of business could lead to the detriment of a worker’s health. And denying workers the ability to go when they need to, or with unfair delays or obstacles, is a violation of workers’ rights and an attack on workers’ dignity.
One of the industries where unfair restriction of bathroom use has been a problem is the poultry industry. With thousands of birds per hour rushing past workers on the line, managers often want to delay breaks to workers for fear of slowing down the fast pace of the production line. In organizing drives, one of the most often heard complaints of unionizing workers is that they are forced to go unreasonable lengths of time between bathroom breaks, and that if they are lucky enough to be granted a break it is very short. Poultry workers do not have to stand for this kind of treatment. The law is on their side.
It’s a Matter of Health
Restricting bathroom use doesn’t just inconvenience workers, it can
adversely affect their health, especially in women, who are among the
majority of poultry workers. Restriction of urination can result in an
increased occurrence of urinary tract infections, and in rare
situations, renal damage. In turn, urinary tract infections during
pregnancy have been linked with low birth weight, which can lead to
numerous health problems for newborns.
Forced delay in defecation can lead to constipation, abdominal pain, diverticuli and hemorrhids.
According to Occupational Health and Safety Administration regulations, employers may not “impose unreasonable restrictions” on bathroom use. OSHA realizes that the frequency of bathroom visits can vary significantly among workers due to medical conditions. Depending upon the temperature, medical conditions and the effects of medication, fluid intake or other factors, employees may have different requirements for facility access. That is why there are sanitation regulations, general requirements for workplace restrooms under Section 1910.141. The language and structure of the general industry standard reflect the agency’s intent that employees be able to use facilities promptly.
Under OSHA law, employee bathrooms must meet certain specifications. General requirements of OSHA law for general industry under Section 1910.121 (d) (2) mandate that workplace bathrooms must:
1. Be kept in clean condition.
2. Have hot and cold running water, or warm running water.
3. Provide soap or some other hand cleaning substance.
4. Provide, in the bathroom or nearby, towels, air blowers or clean cloth for drying hands.
The law also specifies that there be an appropriate number of bathrooms for the number of employees in an area:
1–15 employees 1 bathroom
16–35 employees 2 bathrooms
36–55 employees 3 bathrooms
56–80 employees 4 bathrooms
81–110 employees 5 bathrooms
110–150 employees 6 bathrooms, with an additional fixture for each 40 extra workers.
Note that the number of employees is determined upon the sex of the workers. If there are 15 male employees and 15 female employees, there should be two easily accessed bathroom facilities.
The bathroom facilities must be readily available. Toilets that are not for employee use cannot be considered “available.” Timely access is a goal of the OSHA regulations.
For farmworkers, bathrooms must be located within a quarter-mile of the worksite. Mobile work crews are exempt from the specifications of the standard, provided that they have available to them easy transportation and access to a “nearby” facility.
In an effort to help employers deal with assembly line type situations that require constant coverage, OSHA suggested employers should have a signal system in place so that employees can request relief. This way, when an employee signals, another employee can take the spot on the work station. If employees are not being forced to wait an unreasonable amount of time for bathroom use, a system like this works with under OSHA regulations.