Members may have seen in the BSD Telephony areas information from the employer that they should only being go to the toilet in their rest breaks, and that they should be keeping the time that they take to go to the toilet to a “quick” session (never more than 5 minutes including time to and from the toilet – walking and waiting time).

To make matters worse, some of the miscommunications from the employer allude to PCS agreeing this nonsense.

The DWP’s intranet on the topic of welfare/ rest breaks indicates:

“Q25 Does any time not spent working count as a break?

No. Short, ad-hoc paid interruptions to work, for example, for the toilet, medication, to quickly get a drink, will additionally take place in normal working time but do not constitute paid breaks in this context.“

Please note that it is “to quickly get a drink” – not to quickly go to the toilet, and it says the opposite in terms of only going to the toilet in rest/ welfare breaks.

As for the question why has PCS agreed the nonsense that has been issued? Well we haven’t, it was made up.