Brown Brothers workers hold toilet rule protest

Jul 2 2008 by John Ballard, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

STAFF at an Upper Nithsdale factory are working in “sweatshop conditions”, an MP and trade union have claimed.

Workers at Brown Brothers in Kirkconnel are forced to take unpaid lavatory breaks — a policy that has been condemned by MP Russell Brown and Unite the Union as unacceptable.

In a bid to embarrass the company and urge it to abandon this “Draconian” measure, Unite tried to present it with a golden toilet on Friday.

In addition union members held a demonstration and paraded the lavatory outside the factory.

As well as having to clock off each time they need to visit the toilet, staff are also expected to provide medical evidence in order to be excused from the system.

MP Russell Brown said: “I’m appalled that staff are being treated in sweatshop conditions right here in Dumfries and Galloway.

“Workers at Brown Brothers are effectively having their pay stopped for going to the toilet, which is a completely undignified and unacceptable way of treating staff in 2008.

“I’m calling on the company to treat their workers with the dignity they deserve.”

Brown Brothers supply Tesco with products, so Unite also gave the supermarket giant a gold toilet and urged them to pressure the firm into ending “one of Britain’s worst toilet policies”.

John Holroyd, Unite’s regional industrial organiser said: “It’s now the 21st century and we are calling for the company to do the right thing now. There are equality issues there, for example with women who are pregnant or on their period having to explain why they are needing the toilet more often.”

The Standard contacted Brown Brothers but no-one was available for comment.