Gimme a [Potty] Break…

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times

A sad but not new fact about industrialization is the dehumanization of workers who are “on the line” and instructed, more or less, to become one with the manufacturing process. Your employer does not want to hear about your sick kid, your sore hip, or your need to use the restroom…

But there are limits.

Electrolux Home Products put employee Lily Prince between a box and a hard place with a rather severe bathroom break policy and terminated Ms. Prince for opting for the box. Plaintiff Prince brought an action under the Minnesota Occupational Safety & Health Act and Minn. Stat. 177.253 and U.S. District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank (D. Minn.) denied all parts of defendant’s motion to dismiss last week.