Your Rights to Basic Sanitation at Work

We are lucky to live and work here in the United States, where our first world infrastructure gives us access to sanitation and the basic human needs of everyday life. Except  many California workers, these basic necessities are not provided. And that may lead you to ask what kind of sanitation does your employer have to provide?

Basic Sanitation

Your employer must provide basic, sanitary facilities for you to use at work. This is different from industry-specific safety standards, or personal protective gear for hazardous workplaces, or OSHA guidelines about safety requirements. We are more talking about basic human needs and being free from disease–meaning clean restrooms, clean drinking water, or clean and safe places to eat a meal.

Risky Workplaces

It may seem odd to even have to write about this, but there are workplaces where these basic sanitation requirements are ignored or not met.

Imagine, for example, a construction site, which doesn’t provide any nearby bathrooms, or other outdoor workers who, in the absence of clean water, are told to get their water from hoses or told there is no water, but they should just bring their own bottled water to work.

Even the failure to provide reasonable access to shade at reasonable intervals, for those who work outdoors, can be considered unsanitary and thus, illegal.

What is Sanitary or Not Sanitary?

There are specific requirements that California laws define as sanitary or not sanitary.

For example, employees have a right to separate bathrooms for males and females, which are working and are maintained in a clean manner. These bathrooms must be located within 200 feet of wherever an employee is working, where possible.

Washrooms should be stocked with basic sanitation and hygiene products, such as soaps and toilet paper.

If eating at work, your workplace must provide garbage cans, and an area that is designated to eat–for example, they cannot require you to eat your lunch sitting in the driver’s seat of your heavy machinery, or even at your desk, if you don’t want to eat at your desk.

Drinking water must be provided, and if cups are used, they must not be shared amongst employees.

It should go without saying that any type of unsanitary hazard, for example, a toilet backing up, should be attended to and cleaned as quickly as possible.

Some requirements have to do with not just sanitation, but basic safety–such as the requirement to keep floors clean and safe from debris or hazards.

Employers must also require employees to wash their hands after using the restroom, and must provide storage for clothing, if clothing must be changed at work.

Getting Damages

If your employer breaks or ignores these rules, you may have avenues to recover damages, through reporting of violations to appropriate state agencies. Some laws have private remedies, while with others, you can work with the government and get compensation for reporting sanitation violations at work.

Sanitation problem at your workplace? Contact the San Jose employment attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today.

Source:

dir.ca.gov/title8/8397_4.html