A former employee at T-Mobile USA’s call center is claiming that she was forced to use up some of her holiday time because her manager thought she was going to the toilet too often.
Three years ago, Kristi Rifkin was working for a company in Nashville when she became pregnant. Doctor advised her to increase the amount of water she drank each day, and she (obviously) had to go to the rest room more often than usual.
In an interview to ABC News, Rifkin said that the company is giving its employees at the call center two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch, and “if you can’t take care of your biological needs in that time period, you don’t go.” So she ended up using her vacation time to use the bathroom.
But that’s not all; you see, shortly after she returned to work following the birth, she was fired for a minor infraction on a customer account.
Rifkin has no plans to sue T-Mobile, as it is too expensive, and local labor laws are not favorable anyway to employees. Instead, she just wants to raise public awareness about the problem, calling for paid sick leave to be offered to company employees.
As you would imagine, labor laws in Europe are much different than those in the States and one would have hard time imagining something similar happening in any T-Mobile market across the Old Continent where employees enjoy much better protection. Shame on T-Mobile for acting like this…