Re: [Pen-l] final thought before boarding

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 8, 2009, at 11:38 AM, Jim Devine wrote:

> In the GOP spirit, here's a good idea for raising worker productivity:
> fewer bathroom breaks. The nervous energy produced by "holding it"
> will power more intense work.

<http://www.amazon.com/Void-Where-Prohibited-Urinate-Company/dp/0801433908 
>

Void Where Prohibited: Rest Breaks and the Right to Urinate on Company  
Time (ILR Press Books) (Hardcover)by Marc Linder (Author), Ingrid,  
M.D. Nygaard (Author)

---

<http://www.labornotes.org/voidrevisited>

Void Where Prohibited Revisited

The Trickle-Down Effect of OSHA'S At-Will Bathroom Regulation

by Marc Linder

Add to Cart

In Void Where Prohibited, Marc Linder exposed OSHA's failure to  
protect worker's rights to urinate on company time. Five years after  
OSHA declared that right in a memorandum, Linder examines OSHA'S  
record of enforcement in Void Where Prohibited Revisited.

Void Where Prohibited mobilized public opinion to pressure the  
Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue its 1998  
memorandum declaring that the industrial sanitation standard "requires  
employers to make toilet facilities available so that employees can  
use them when they need to do so." (Previously, OSHA claimed that its  
requirement that employers provide toilets did not obligate them to  
let workers use those toilets.)

But was this establishment of at-will-bathroom breaks worth the  
cyberspace it was posted in? How do labor-protective regulations get  
enforced in a world of powerful employers opposed to government  
interference and an understaffed OSHA that fails to pursue complaints  
vigorously?

Five years on, Void Where Prohibited Revisited answers these  
questions. Linder analyzes all the citations that OSHA has issued to  
employers for violating their obligation to let workers go to the  
bathroom and interviews OSHA officials, labor union officers, workers,  
and employers. Since many who are free to got to the bathroom doubt  
stories about workers who have been forced to void on themselves or  
have been disciplined for using the toilet without permission, details  
from OSHA reports documenting these practices and the dispute at the  
Jim Bean bourbon plant in Kentucky receive special attention.

Marc Linder, a labor law professor at the University of Iowa who also  
worked at Texas Rural Legal Aid representing farm workers, has written  
widely on labor law, labor economics, labor relations, and labor  
history.
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