Spend more than 6 minutes a day in the bathroom at Chicago's WaterSaver Faucet¹ company and you'll face disciplinary measures.

 

That's what a union contends the manufacturer is pulling: timing² bathroom breaks and warning employees when they can't beat the clock.

 

Teamsters local 743 filed a complaint with the National Labor³ Relations Board claiming WaterSaver unfairly disciplined 19 workers in June for "excessive use" of washrooms.

 

The company's human resources department described "excessive use of the bathroom as ... 60 minutes or more over the last 10 working days," according to the affidavit⁴（宣誓书）. Do the math and it works out to 6 minutes a day.

 

The controversy⁵ goes back to last winter when WaterSaver installed swipe card systems on bathrooms located off the factory floor.

 

The company said it had little choice because some employees were spending way too much time in there, and not enough time on the manufacturing line.

 

WaterSaver's CEO, Steve Kersten, said 120 hours of production were lost in May because of bathroom visits outside of allotted⁶ break times.

 

To recoup lost hours, WaterSaver has adopted a rewards system where workers can earn a gift card of up to $20 each month ($1 a day) if they don't use the bathroom at all during work time. CEO Kersten said a few workers have already earned them.

 

He said that so far no one has been suspended or terminated, although warnings were issued. The company has a three step disciplinary process that starts with a verbal or written warning, which can then lead to a suspension, and finally a termination.

 

The union said monitoring bathroom time is an invasion of privacy.

 

"The company has spreadsheets on every union employee on how long they were in the bathroom," said Nick Kreitman, the union representative at WaterSavers. "There have been meetings with workers and human resources where the workers had to explain what they were doing in the bathroom," he said

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