Workers at a Cape factory are p***ed off because their boss deducts their wages if their toilet breaks are too long.
|||Cape Town - Workers at a Cape Town factory are p***ed off because their boss deducts money from their wages if their toilet breaks are too long.
The employees at Capewell Springs in Epping told the Daily Voice their 12-minute toilet break limit has them fed-up.
Some of the workers say money has already been deducted from their wages for taking long toilet breaks.
“This is a violation of our human rights,” one of the employees Keith Hector told the Daily Voice.
An extended toilet break has already cost the 40-year-old R100 in two weeks.
Hector said if they wanted to use the toilet they would have to clock out so an exact record is kept of how long their toilet break is.
“[Two weeks ago] money was deducted from my wages for time lost,” he said. “Our boss says it’s because we take long smoke breaks but many of us don’t even smoke.”
A disgruntled Keith shows his payslips where approximately R60 and R40 were deducted as “lost time”.
“Ek rook nie eers nie (I don’t even smoke). The lost time is the time I went to the toilet,” said the angry man.
Shop steward Dulon Beneke, 39, said he had to take sick leave when he suffered from diarrhoea.
“I had to take sick leave because I can’t afford to run to the toilet every time, else the money is deducted from our wage,” he said.
Their female co-workers say that 12 minutes a day is unreasonable.
Desiree Arends said: “We [women] use the toilet a lot during menstruation. We use the toilet more than once and how is it possible to do everything within 12 minutes? I have already lost R42 because of this.”
Another employee joked: “I am constipated and I am too scared to use the toilet because I know I won’t be done in 12 minutes.”
Assistant director of employment standards at the Labour Department Unathi Ramabulana said the employees were being treated unfairly.
“The Basic Conditions of Employment Act does not go into detail about toilet breaks. It expects common sense to be applied to the situation,” Unathi said.
“Deducting money [for long toilet breaks] is an unfair labour practice and is unlawful and not allowed.”
Director of Capewell Springs Graham Montgomery refused to speak to the Daily Voice.
“I have nothing to say to you,” he said before ending the call.
Daily Voice