Law regarding rest breaks is disgusting

ceridwen

safesound wrote: »

I have worked in retail for 20+ years and not a single shop (national or local) has allowed staff to have a drink under the counter, it really is the exception rather than the rule. The same goes for toilet breaks, if you are in a busy store with few staff and don't get a statutory break then you are expected to cross your legs for the whole shift.

For 5 hours? - even if you're a woman? even if you're pregnant?

Whew!!!!!:eek: Words fail me....

ceridwen

Hammyman wrote: »

Absolute poppycock unless you're doing something like working in a kitchen. You know what the hours are so adjust your breakfast and lunchtime accordingly.

I'd be interested actually to know just when lunchtime could be during ANY of those "shifts"? Lunchtime in Britain starts at 12 noon - 1pm. Before 12 noon is unreasonably early. After 1pm is unreasonably late (and people would be absolutely starving)...so I cant actually see just how people COULD do that personally....

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As for going right through goodness-knows-how-many-hours without a loo break that another poster proposed.....my only thought is "They MUST be a man". I've gone past the relevant age group now (ie past menopause) - thank goodness:D - but for quite a few years...it really WAS the case that "If I had to go - I really really HAD to go" and no question about it (ie those inconvenient things called periods - and the "flooding" that some women get with them). Believe me - if you're a woman - then you might very well know ALL about absolutely HAVING to go RIGHT NOW and no question about it....(happens to a lot of us women:().

Sorry to be so "graphic" - but I DO wonder whether many male managers appreciate that if a woman has to go then she really really HAS to go sometimes...and that means right NOW.

Oldernotwiser

Plenty of women have self control and not need to go to the loo for 4/5 hours. Being pregnant is a totally different situation.

ceridwen

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Plenty of women have self control and not need to go to the loo for 4/5 hours. Being pregnant is a totally different situation.

Sits back feeling very envious of you right now then....:cool:

I've never been pregnant (though have had enough women explaining the urgency of "need" in those circumstances to understand)

- but, for those women who have period problems (and there ARE a LOT of them) then one really really CANNOT wait. I lost count of the number of times I had no choice whatsoever but to run for the loo as fast as I could - and no employer telling me "nay" could possibly have been allowed to stand in my way - I had no darn option BUT to do so...whether I myself liked it or no. That DOES happen to many women - and it's no good anyone (male or female) saying it doesnt or shouldnt - because it DOES and has to be dealt with promptly to save embarrassment.

If I had had an awkward employer during those years in my life - then I would have "pinned the blame" exactly where it lay for "problems" caused by their attitude - and made darn sure I shifted the "flack" onto the appropriate shoulders for "problems" (ie theirs - not mine) - but it would still have been awful to have been put in an awkward situation by them not understanding this DOES happen to a lot of women...darn it..

If you've got to go - then some of us REALLY REALLY do have to go and there is no option for it but to do so....

thorsoak

Hammyman wrote: »

Absolute poppycock unless you're doing something like working in a kitchen. You know what the hours are so adjust your breakfast and lunchtime accordingly.

I would point out that if you are working in a kitchen, preparing food, then under no circumstances can you EAT in said kitchen, nor can you bring any outside-prepared food/drink into said kitchen !

Poppy9

No way could I go 5 hours without the loo. I usually get into work at 8am and am lucky if I can get to 12pm before toilet break. During those 4 hours I will have drunk about 2 glasses of water though.

scheming_gypsy

ceridwen wrote: »

Lunchtime in Britain starts at 12 noon - 1pm. Before 12 noon is unreasonably early. After 1pm is unreasonably late (and people would be absolutely starving)...

you're just making that up. There are no set times for lunch, it's your mid day meal and where did you come up with people being 'absolutely starving' if they have lunch after 1pm?

Poppy9

ceridwen wrote: »

I'd be interested actually to know just when lunchtime could be during ANY of those "shifts"? Lunchtime in Britain starts at 12 noon - 1pm. Before 12 noon is unreasonably early. After 1pm is unreasonably late (and people would be absolutely starving)...so I cant actually see just how people COULD do that personally....
.

Well it depends what time you start work really. If you start at 10 then you can't expect to go to lunch at 12!

Don't ever join the police force as my OH has frequently worked over 12 hour shifts with zero food/drink breaks and he's had to stand for hours at a scene, outside unable to go to the loo!! Just the nature of the job.

ceridwen

Nope...definitely NOT "making it up". That IS the British norm - but then I am old enough to have come from more "civilised times" and am aware that some employers DO "pull it" these days and dont take account of peoples needs/rights/norms in this respect.

Are you from a younger generation than my own then? - because I think you would automatically understand if you had come from the Baby Boomer one or the one prior to us...

...and..yep...my stomach thinks my throat has been slit on the odd occasion I've ended up having my lunch later than 1pm...:)

kingfisherblue

Most of the secondary schools in my area only have lunch after 1pm (and start at 8.30 - my son is on the bus at 7,55). Now admittedly he is hungry by lunchtime, but a good breakfast and a decent tea mean that he can manage a late lunch.

Regarding the toilet - personally I couldn't go five hours without a visit to the loo, but my daughter can and does. She has never needed to go as often as I do. I wonder if that will change after she has had children?