In many workplaces, people are often monitored by their managers on bathroom/toilet breaks. This news article picked from Metro UK looked at one manager who certainly had taken things too far.
A factory boss who ordered women workers to wear a red sign around their necks when they wanted to use the toilet is facing legal action.
The male manager made the 400 women wear the sign with the word toilet written on it in a bid to humiliate them into taking fewer breaks.
Employees at the El Ciruelo fruit-packing plant in Murcia, south-east Spain, began drinking less water in stifling heat to put off using the toilets, one female worker said. Staff finally made a complaint to workplace inspectors over the rule, which was in force from May to August this year.
One female worker said: “We were told cardboard signs that came on a string must be worn visibly so we couldn’t hold them or put them in a pocket. Instead, we had to wear them around our necks. It was humiliating and a breach of privacy when we simply answering a basic human need.”
The small number of men in the factory were told not to wear the signs, she said.
“Many of us women ended up drinking even less water even though it was very hot in the summer, just to avoid being seen wearing this thing round our necks,” she added.
Inspectors are also checking complaints that the male boss made women work 15-hour days with just 30 minutes break for a below-minimum wage of £4.80 an hour.
Workplace inspector Jose Fuentes said an inquiry was being undertaken to establish if any Spanish and European laws had been broken.
A boss in Norway was fined last year for ordering all female staff to wear red bracelets during their periods- to explain why they were using the toilet more often.