ASOS staff forced to wee in drinking fountains due to short toilet breaks

They’re not even allowed to take the 15 minute walk to the bathroom


Poor ASOS workers have claimed they have no time for toilet breaks and are forced to wee in the drinking fountains.

With fast packing times and next day delivery, staff at the online fashion company apparently don’t even have enough time to go to the bathroom.

According to GMB Union, workers are so tightly regulated on their work rate they can’t even take the “15 minute walk” to the toilet.

Staff at the distribution centre in Barnsley, South Yorkshire have to pick 65 items an hour and some 800 per shift, the union claims.

ASOS’ distribution centre in Barnsley

An anonymous ASOS worker told the Mirror how they were “briefed that urinating in water fountains and in the aisles was not allowed”.

They added: “I don’t know what their motivation for that was, I don’t know if it was because their ‘pick’ rate was too high.”

Deanne Ferguson of the GMB said: “This leaves staff with no other choice but to use the water stations to urinate in.”

ASOS denies the claims and says there are toilets within four minutes of every point of the warehouse, which employs 4000 people in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

They also insisted toilet visits are not being restricted to break times.

Russell Atkinson of XPO Logistics who run the site said: “We believe the GMB is using outdated information and we refute the allegations.”

An ASOS spokesman said: “We have instructed XPO to look into the matters the GMB has raised as a matter of urgency.”