Do you need a separate toilet?
Anyone who employs staff is confronted with a multitude of legal norms. This also includes the Workplace Ordinance, which, however, no longer mandatorily stipulates that a separate toilet is necessary for men and women.
The workplace ordinance belongs to the area of occupational health and safety law. The labor protection law should u. a. ensure that the health and safety of employees at Workplace is not endangered.
A separate toilet is not absolutely necessary
- A workplace not only includes the room in which, for example, the desk is located. Escape routes, storage and sanitary rooms are also included in the workplace, cf. § 2 para. 4 of the Workplace Ordinance (ArbStättV). The toilets also belong to the sanitary facilities.
- If an employer employs disabled employees, he must ensure that they too can use the appropriate rooms, especially the toilet, of course. Therefore, accessibility must be ensured here.
- According to § 6 para. 2 ArbStättV, the employer must make toilet rooms available to his employees. The problem of gender-segregated toilets cannot be avoided by not having any toilets for the employees.
- A separate toilet is not absolutely necessary. § 6 para. 2 sentence 4 ArbStättV provides for the two options that either a separate toilet is available for men and women or that the rooms can be used separately.
Workplace ordinance in the office - you should know that as an employer
As an employer, you are responsible for ensuring that your employees ...
Enable separate use
- Especially with a small number of employees, it can be a disproportionate effort for the employer to set up separate toilet rooms. The alternative of a separate usage option then comes into question here.
- How this can or should be designed is not regulated in the Workplace Ordinance. It is therefore conceivable, for example, to provide different usage times for each gender.
- If the toilet room can be locked from the inside, it is also possible to use the toilet separately. Which organizational measures are necessary and useful depends on the protective purpose of the regulation.
- It is certainly not exactly thrilling to enter an unlocked toilet room as a colleague if there is a urinal there that is currently in use. If, on the other hand, the toilet is only a single cabin that can be locked from the inside, such unpleasant situations can be avoided.
The Workplace Ordinance regulates minimum requirements for workplaces that are intended to serve the health and safety of employees. The toilets are also part of the workplace.
How helpful do you find this article?
