Women workers continue to have to cope with employers’ poor toilet provision, with one in seven (14%) saying they only sometimes or occasionally have access to a toilet at work.
More than 12,000 women responded to a survey on toilet provision, commissioned by trade union Unite, which found that 17% said that toilets are only “occasionally or sometimes” clean with hot and cold running water, soap and toilet paper, while 2% said they “never” were. One per cent said they never have access to a toilet in the workplace.
Unite warned that it will identify specific employers who are failing in their legal duty to provide clean and accessible toilets and hold them to account.
The problem is particularly prevalent in the transport sector. Approaching half of women bus workers (44%) reported only sometimes or occasionally having access to a toilet, while 4% said they never have access.
Two out of five female bus drivers (40%) also reported that the toilets they have access to are sometimes or occasionally clean with hot and cold water, soap and toilet paper. Five per cent said they never have access to such toilets.
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Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is shameful that so many female workers still do not have decent toilets within the workplace. This is a very serious industrial issue.”
Unite national equalities officer Alison Spenser-Scragg said: “It is a legal requirement for employers to provide accessible and clean toilets, including sanitary bins, yet this survey shows that many are in contravention of the law.
“The fact that so many women are being left without toilet dignity at work is a national disgrace. Unite will challenge it in every workplace it is found to be occurring.”
Access to clean and properly stocked toilets was a serious issue for civil air transport workers as well, with 27% reporting they only sometimes or occasionally have access to them. Four per cent said they never do.
Verbatim comments from survey respondents included: “I mostly use public facilities as out on the road there are very few of them and more often than not, they are closed. Very rarely do they have toilet paper and they are disgustingly filthy. I struggle with this and try not to drink any fluids on certain duties.”
Another woman said: “I have to use shared toilets most of the time. These are very frequently smelly with pee all over seats and sometimes the floor and rarely cleaned if at all. There are no sanitary products or bins available.”
A third respondent said: “I am a carer that works out the community so having a toilet break is unlikely. Carers don’t have a place for break times – no facilities at all.”
Earlier this year, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that a council was found to have discriminated against women by providing ‘inadequate’ toilet facilities – namely a cubicle within the men’s toilets.
Judge James Taylor dismissed an appeal from Earl Shilton Town Council in Leicestershire, finding that providing toilet facilities that lacked sanitary bins and required women to walk past men using the urinals had been discriminatory on the grounds of sex.
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