A company that operates call centres on behalf of several state agencies has been taken to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) by a former employee who accuses it of unjustly restricting bathroom breaks in a bid to increase productivity.
Former employee Npsisi Mabanya says Alteram Solutions — which runs call centres for the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), Compensation Fund, Road Accident Fund and others — created “an intolerable working environment”.
She has lodged an unfair dismissal case with the CCMA, claiming she stained her clothing while menstruating as she waited for permission from a team leader to go to the toilet.
“This caused a lot of embarrassment and shame. This policy they created did not cater for women’s monthly needs, when one needs to go to the bathroom often,” Mabanya said.
She said the company’s policy “undermines a basic human right of relieving oneself when nature calls and is unconstitutional regardless of service level agreements”.
No matter what justification they can give for implementing this rule, it is evil and dehumanising
— Aggrieved ex-employee
She accused Alteram Solutions of treating its employees “like animals, and playing God”.
“No matter what justification they can give for implementing this rule, it is evil and dehumanising. No human beings should be subjected to such treatment.”
Up until September 15 last year, the company allowed staff a “body break” option, whereby they could push a pause button on their system when they needed to go to the bathroom.
An e-mail sent to employees at the time, and seen by the Sunday Times, said: “There will be no bathroom breaks,” and if they needed to go to the toilet, employees were expected “to utilise breaks allocated”, such as lunch breaks.
On October 16 the company sent another e-mail, seemingly backing down and attempting to clarify “concerns”.
“Body Breaks: These remain permitted: however employees are expected to manage them responsibly… to ensure minimal disruption to overall productivity,” read the e-mail sent to agents handling UIF calls.
The company this week denied there was a “ban” on toilet breaks and said employees with “certain medical conditions” or those who needed to use the bathroom outside stipulated breaks could “seek permission” from their team leaders.
Alteram Solutions group commercial officer Boyce Mkhize acknowledged that the bathroom pause button option had been cancelled, blaming some employees for having abused the system.
“The company observed a pattern of abuse of the body breaks mechanism whereby call centre agents could simply avoid taking calls by engaging the ‘body break pause’ button,” Mkhize told the Sunday Times.
Some agents would engage this pause button even when they did not leave their desks, just to avoid taking calls, he said.
“This had an impact on our service level agreement targets… and therefore needed to be regulated. In order to regulate the use of the body break pause button, the organisation first removed the body break pause button,” he said.
He said agents were now required to ask their team leaders if they could go to the toilet.
“Agents were encouraged to make use of their normal break times for purposes of attending to the bathroom calls. However, where agents needed to use the bathroom in between their break times, or had certain medical conditions, they were clearly informed to notify their team leaders and seek permission,” he said.
“It is important to stress that, given the high call volumes and a highly pressurised environment, team leaders are required to ensure that agents are distributed accordingly for the division of calls,” Mkhize said.
He said if an agent left their station, the team leader had to ensure that agent’s workload was distributed among the other agents.
It is illegal to stop workers from going to the bathroom. Companies that legitimately believe employees abuse bathroom breaks should reflect on why such situations arise and why workers feel the need to hide from work in bathrooms
— Phethani Madzivhandila, labour analyst
Another former employee, also a woman, told the Sunday Times that the directive last September ending body breaks had come as a “big shock”.
“Call centre work is one of the toughest as you repeat the same thing to hundreds of callers, and therefore to keep up your concentration you take a lot of liquids, which makes you need the bathroom often,” this person said. “Every time the service level dropped, they would say toilet breaks are abused.”
She said a few of the staff had raised concerns, but most had not complained because they were “holding on to the job for dear life” due to lack of other opportunities.
Hearings in the dispute have begun at the CCMA, but Alteram is yet to present its side. A date for the next sitting is yet to be confirmed.
Labour analyst Phethani Madzivhandila described the body breaks directive as a “blatant violation of labour laws”.
“It is not just on the labour front but even on a human rights level. It is illegal to stop workers from going to the bathroom,” Madzivhandila said. “Companies that legitimately believe employees abuse bathroom breaks should reflect on why such situations arise and why workers feel the need to hide from work in bathrooms.”
He said it could be a sign of “being overworked and too much surveillance”.
Teboho Thejane, spokesperson for the department of employment & labour, said: “The department views labour rights as human rights. Each workplace must adhere to the labour laws and treat workers with dignity.”
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