They should send us home to work?

[Coffeesnob11]

I work in London in an office. We got in this morning to discover only half the building has power. The half that doesn't have power includes the toilets.
Everyone is complaining about the heat but I am more upset they have provided us with a bucket of water to 'flush' the loo. The taps in the toilets aren't working so you have to go through 3 doors to get to the only working tap. The fruit is also out but I can't bear, even after washing it, the thought of people having not washed their hands. Reasonably i know it probably happens but i cant get it out my head today. They said it would be fixed by 11.30 but no signs yet. We can all work from home and some are today naturally most commute but would work extra to make up for the middle of the day commute back and work on the train.

Yuck, disgusting. What would happen if you just said you were leaving?

Dear me, get back to work ! You can't take a duvet day because the taps aren't working !

I'd just leave and say you're going to work at home because the facilities are out of order. They're not going to want to start going down the road of disciplinary procedures against someone when there's basic sanitation issues going on.

Go out and get yourself some wet wipes and then get on with your work.

They couldn’t anyway. Section 44 of the Employment Act means that employees can remove themselves under health and safety grounds. No working toilets and hand washing facilities is unhygienic.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/workplace-facilities/health-safety.htm

Could you walk to the half of the office that does have working facilities? If everyone did that would the facilities be adequate?

If not I would be going home.

So none of the toilets are working in the whole building they are only located in the half that isn't working and all the toilet taps are sensor driven hence not working. We only have access to our floor. The lights are working in half the building but that's it. Our kitchen is in the half that works.
I have an health issue which is being investigated but means I have to often rush to the loo. I don't feel comfortable trying to 'flush' using a bucket of water.

Where did I suggest a duvet day? I suggested I work on the train on my laptop and then at home and work later (which I often do anyway almost nightly) to make up any time.

Can’t you just leave? Call the travel time your lunch break then work as normal this afternoon?

Tbh I wouldn’t be keen to make up any time for this morning as it was outside your control!

It's long passed 11.30 have you said anything? Are you still there?

It's not like 5 years ago where sending you home would mean no work done. Most office workers can now WFH and you've said you can.

I would have probably said I was wfh in the first place!

I have a lot of anxiety about free access to toilets though

Essentially you want to go home because the toilets don't work. It's not a very good excuse. Get some hand wipes and identify some other toilets nearby that the team could use temporarily.

Unfortunately your employers are in the wrong; they have to provide access to working toilets and hand washing facilities. Go home and tell them if they try to take it further, they will feel the weight of H&S.

I work in facilities management and no way would we let this happen. We would have advised hours ago that we'd be closing the office until it's fixed!

This doesn't make any sense. Why do you need power to flush the toilets? I've never seen a plumbing system that required electricity. Surely the only electricity in a toilet is the lighting (which you haven't mentioned)?

Op has explained that the taps are sensor activated

If none of the loos work then they aren't providing adequate facilities and I think it would be perfectly reasonable to conclude you therefore need to work from home.

@ReliantRobyn The film version of Bless This House has a scene where the person who owns the greasy spoon cafe tells Mike that they dont have a toilet "but the pub down the road has one and we allow you two mins to get there and two mins to get back , also the tap in the sink doesnt work but the customers like to see it so just make out you are washing them.

Shorter version of my post. ITS NOT THE 1970s.

@PuffinsRocks, you probably have, you just don’t realise it. A lot of larger buildings (offices, blocks of flats etc) are constructed with an electric water pump in the basement to get water to the upper floors. The system isn’t set up the way a house is (which I think just depends on mains water pressure to get water to the upper floors). Basically, no electricity means no water.

Are you not too keen on flushing the toilet it washing your hands then? Yuck!

The electricity finally came back on about 1.30pm
Yes the toilet water uses an electric pump and as we are several floors up there was none available. I went to a cafe in the end to buy a coffee and use their toilet and just drank a lot less water than usual until it was fixed.
I wasn't looking to shirk work but equally didn't want to explain an incontinence issue to my boss.

My employers were early wfh adopters. Having faced scenarios of building difficulties of all sorts over the past 20 years, I have just packed up my things and gone to wfh in these scenarios. No one ever cared and I got more work done than being in an office building that was having problems.

Do you work for the Daily Mail?

Are you working from home today yourself? Bet you are!

No working toilets is unhygienic as has been posted above and it's not permitted in a workplace as has been posted above. The OP's employer should have closed the building and made alternative arrangements first thing or as soon as this occurred.