A boss in Norway has ordered female staff to wear a red bracelet when they are on their period to explain their frequent toilet use.
This has emerged from a report conducted by a worker’s union, Parat, which looked at the ‘tyrannical’ toilet rules in Norwegian companies.
The study found that 66 per cent of managers made staff ask them for an electronic key card to gain access to the toilets so they could monitor breaks.
It also found that one in three firms put CCTV by the toilets and asked staff to sign a toilet visitors book. The study claimed businesses were becoming obsessed with lost productivity due to employees’ toilet breaks.
The Parat Union said: ‘Women quite justifiably feel humiliated by being tagged in this way, so that all their colleagues are aware of this intimate detail of their private life.’
The report has been handed over to Norway’s chief ombudsman Bjorn Erik Thon who said: ’Toilet codes relating to menstrual cycles are clear violations of privacy and is very insulting to the people concerned.
“I hope and believe that this is not representative of the Norwegian working life in general, assuring “a full review of the rules surrounding employment and privacy over the coming year.”
Read the story in the Daily Mail.
This has to be some kind of joke. I thought from the headline it’d be about some run down 3rd world despotic country, but Norway? Is this guy married? Is it only one mans decision? What the..?
Are we in the 21st Century or the dark ages? This is so totally stupid on so many levels.
Being Norwegian I feel compelled to comment on this… As horrendous as this sounds, I’ve never heard of anything like this happening in Norway, and hope this was a once-off incident that has been blown out of proportion.
According to the Norwegian media, the high numbers referring to the use of CCTV and electronic key cards in the report were unrelated to toilet breaks. The 66 per cent reporting that key cards were in use reported that this was a security measure to enter/exit the company building. One in three companies reported that cameras were used to monitor the premises in general, but nothing about loos was mentioned there either.
I agree with Sara.
Im English but live and work here in Oslo, and I havent read anything in the Norwegian press, nor heard anything through my friends here, many of whom are active feminists. Workers rights are well protected here in Norway, with strong union representation being available to all workers, and womens rights are at least as well protected, if not far more so, than the UK.
Its seems to me that this is something the British Press has concocted for the sake of sensationalism once again, and lets be honest, the Daily Mail isnt the most reliable source of information. More akin to the Daily Sport. I notice the company isnt named in the article, nor the source. Perhaps it would be better if newpaper editors checked information first instead of running with whatever sells, as they so often do.