Void Where Prohibited

Although federal and state regulations require employers to provide toilets, government agencies do not require employers to permit workers to use them. In this volume, Marc Linder, a labour lawyer and political economist and Ingrid Nygaard, a physician specializing in urogynaecology, place this regulatory breakdown in the wider context of the history of labour-management struggles over rest periods. They emphasize the physiological consequences that workers suffer when they are not allowed to interrupt work to rest or urinate. The authors assert that without legal protection, workers are held captive. They report that, knowing that supervisors often deny permission to leave the production line, many workers now wear adult diapers designed for the incontinent. An elementary school teacher wanting to use the bathroom, may take her whole class along. Linder and Nygaard explain how protective rest period legislation has shrunk over time - ironically, because most statutes singled out women for rest breaks, they were invalidated by Title VII's ban on sex discrimination.
They explain other countries' regulations and conclude with a recommendation for legislation to mandate rest and bathroom breaks for all workers.