WORLD TOILET DAY SATURDAY 19th NOVEMBER 2022

Our ref: HSR/3/2

Head Office Circular: NP/257/22

17^th November 2022

To: The Secretary

ALL BRANCHES

REGIONAL COUNCILS

 

Dear Colleague,

 

WORLD TOILET DAY

SATURDAY 19^th NOVEMBER 2022

 

World Toilet Day has been an annual United Nations event since 2013. The aim of the day is to celebrate toilets and to raise awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. You can learn more about World Toilet Day here: https://www.worldtoiletday.info/learn. If you organise any events for the day and use social media to advertise this please  use the hashtag #WorldToiletDay.

The tragic death this year of a train driver in sidings near West Worthing station, West Sussex, killed by another train after getting out of his cab to urinate at the track side because there were no toilets on board his train, highlights the importance of having adequate sanitation arrangements for transport workers. In a statement ASLEF said they await the RAIB report into the tragedy, but in the meantime the union is calling on all rail operators to remedy the lack of facilities for train crew where no toilet is provided on board. The Office of Rail and Road had separately issued an “improvement notice” to the driver’s company, GTR Thameslink, over the operator’s failure “to provide adequate welfare facilities for drivers and conductors.”

RMT have long campaigned for improved toilet provision for our members. For example, a 2019 RMT survey exposed the shocking reality of lack of toilet facilities and showed that this discriminates against women and disabled people.

The coronavirus pandemic only amplified this problem, as RMT members, reliant on using toilets in shops and cafes etc. when away from their work base, found themselves completely without as these premises were closed. It’s a disgrace that their employers do not provide adequate toilet provision for them.

 

If the sanitation arrangements in your workplace(s) are not sufficient then as a way to begin to address this I recommend  this ITF resource, “Sanitation Rights are Human Rights, Activist Toolkit”  : https://sanitation.itfglobal.org/?utm_source=Socials&utm_medium=posts&utm_campaign=sharesanitationtoolkitpost

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Michael Lynch

General Secretary