A Chicago-based company allows only up to 6-minutes worth of bathroom breaks per day and penalizes employees who spend more than the allowed time in the bathroom.
WaterSaver Faucet Co. of Chicago allows its employees to take bathroom breaks of 30 minutes in a week, which equates to 6 minutes a day for a person who works five days a week. In June this year, the company is also said to have disciplined 19 workers for spending more than the allotted time in washrooms.
The company has taken the bathroom break allotment time very seriously and has also installed a tracking system in the washrooms where employees have to swipe their ID cards to enter and use the facility. Once the ID card is swiped, the machine monitors the time spent by the employee in the bathroom.
An employee union, Teamsters Local 743, has filed an official complaint with the National Labor Relations Board complaining of WaterSaver Faucet's bathroom rules for employees.
"The company has spreadsheets on every union employee on how long they were in the bathroom," says Nick Kreitman, the union representative at WaterSaver Faucet. "There have been meetings with workers and human resources where the workers had to explain what they were doing in the bathroom."
While bathroom breaks are important for all employees, the company has its own perspective and awards $20 to employees who do not use the allotted bathroom break at all during a month. The CEO of the company, Steve Kersten, claims that some employees have also received the $20 award.
Kersten says that about 120 productive hours were lost during the month of May this year due to employees' bathroom break outside the allotted time of 30 minutes per week.
The company accuses that some employees spend far too much time in the bathroom and some of them also use their mobile handsets while in the bathroom.
Kersten says that till now no one has been suspended or terminated due to excessive time for bathroom breaks; however, the company admits that warnings has been issued to some employees. The CEO also highlights that apart from the bathroom breaks, workers are also given one full hour break during which they have unlimited access to the washroom.
The company says that it does not have any problems if employees use the bathrooms when they need. However, excess time spent and multiple trips, which affects the productivity is something the company is trying to control.
