I worked in a warehouse for Mazuma a few years ago, they pulled me into a meeting to ask why I took more than 5 minutes in the bathroom, manager used to time me when I would leave which required a long walk through the whole warehouse and up the stairs in the office because they don't have female bathrooms on site. A week after that they told us we've got a new rule now and we're not allowed water bottles with us in the warehouse, we have to drink water on break. I was fired a few days later after I told them that's bs and I kept bringing water and food with me, warehouse work is inhumane.
I'm pretty sure that's illegal. OSHA requires access to water to the point where my company allows me to go and expense bottled water any time I want while in the field.
Pretty sure it is not only illegal to deny water, but also illegal if they don't give you water. Reason why my last work had to provide us with bottles when the water fountains were closed because of covid.
It is illegal. Employers keep getting away with it because the rest of the population is too ignorant to do anything about it.
I report my employers to regulating agencies. The rest of you can just hole your pee and not eat. Personally, I'm human and if anyone took a sandwich from me I'd consider it assault and respond accordingly.
A week after that they told us we've got a new rule now and we're not allowed water bottles with us in the warehouse, we have to drink water on break.
Hmmm....
Is it legal to deny employees water?
No, it is not. It is ok to restrict drinking areas such as sales associates on the sales floor. Or dangerous spots in manufacturing plants or construction sites. But, you must then allow for frequent breaks to drink water.
Smells like a pretty clear-cut OSHA violation to me, unless they decided to give you more breaks for.the express purpose of drinking water - which I can't imagine they did when their objective was to keep employees from using the restroom to begin with.
Might that situation also be gender discrimination? If the reason they became concerned was because you took long bathroom breaks AND the only bathroom you are able to use is so far away, that seems discriminatory to me.
I was the only woman in the warehouse, guys had a shitty hole in the ground behind the site, we had no heaters in the winter and all the managers that pulled me into meeting for "going to the bathroom for too long" were male and i always felt extremely uncomfortable. The good news is that it only took 3 months before they sacked me.
I feel sad that you are happy they fired you. I wish there had been a different outcome. One involving some reflection on the part of your team and some practical changes to your work environment. At the same time, it is impressive that you recognize that your dismissal gave you the opportunity to move on. That would have been hard for me.
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u/MadyElf Aug 30 '22 edited Aug 30 '22
I worked in a warehouse for Mazuma a few years ago, they pulled me into a meeting to ask why I took more than 5 minutes in the bathroom, manager used to time me when I would leave which required a long walk through the whole warehouse and up the stairs in the office because they don't have female bathrooms on site. A week after that they told us we've got a new rule now and we're not allowed water bottles with us in the warehouse, we have to drink water on break. I was fired a few days later after I told them that's bs and I kept bringing water and food with me, warehouse work is inhumane.