Jacquie has Nowhere to Go

I was still very new to traffic control when this happened. I hadn’t been in the industry long, and that morning turned into the worst day I had experienced as a traffic controller. I was working in Perth and had already started the day under pressure. There had been an accident on the road, which delayed me by around 30 minutes. I called my workplace to let them know what had happened and that I was running late. I didn’t stop anywhere along the way. I drove straight to site. By the time I arrived, I had already spent an hour and a half travelling just to get there.

I was still very new to traffic control when this happened. I hadn’t been in the industry long, and that morning turned into the worst day I had experienced as a traffic controller. I was working in Perth and had already started the day under pressure. There had been an accident on the road, which delayed me by around 30 minutes. I called my workplace to let them know what had happened and that I was running late. I didn’t stop anywhere along the way. I drove straight to site. By the time I arrived, I had already spent an hour and a half travelling just to get there.

Once I got to site, I worked for over an hour before asking if I could quickly go to the toilet. I was told the nearest public toilet was about a five-minute drive away. So I got in my car, drove to the toilet, used the facilities and came straight back to site. I didn’t stop anywhere else. I didn’t take my time. I went to the toilet and returned straight away. I then worked for about another hour before the site was packed down. At the time, I didn’t think anything more of it. I had already called ahead about the traffic delay. I had driven straight to site. I had worked while I was there. And when I needed to go to the toilet, I went to the closest facility I had been directed to and came straight back.

Then I received my payslip. Almost two hours were missing from my pay. I called my boss because I couldn’t understand where that time had gone. I was then told that trips to public toilets were not considered work hours. I remember thinking, how is that fair? There was no toilet on site.

I didn’t choose to leave site for something personal. I wasn’t going shopping. I wasn’t stopping for food. I wasn’t taking an extended break. I needed to go to the toilet. The only toilet available to me was a public toilet I had to drive to. I went there, used it and came straight back. Yet somehow, because there was no toilet facilities provided on site, the time it took me to access one was taken out of my pay. As a new traffic controller, that was one of the first lessons I was given. If there is no toilet on site, you still need to go. And if the nearest toilet is somewhere you have to drive to, apparently that time can be treated like it belongs to you instead of the job.

I wasn’t asking for anything special. I just needed to use a toilet.