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Speaker 1: Now we've got a bit of controversy over water at work.

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Speaker 1: So what's happened as a New World worker has gone

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Speaker 1: on to Reddit to complain that their store is going

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Speaker 1: to ban employees from having water bottles on the shop floor.

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Speaker 1: This means, of course, they can only drink water on

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Speaker 1: their brakes. Rud Hues is with the Workers First Union

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Speaker 1: high Rod. Is this really happening?

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Speaker 2: What apparently it is, And it's not the first time

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Speaker 2: we've kind of come across this sort of thing. We

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Speaker 2: have had issues and other stores another retail stores, and

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Speaker 2: where we've had those issues, we've managed to sit down

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Speaker 2: with the company and talk about access to water and

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Speaker 2: where they have access to water, you know, they don't

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Speaker 2: need the water bottles, but where they haven't got access

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Speaker 2: to water, and where they can put them out of

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Speaker 2: sight under counters. The companies have come back and said, okay,

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Speaker 2: well those people can have water bottles. It seems to

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Speaker 2: be a you know, kind of a basic human right

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Speaker 2: that people should be able to have access to water.

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Speaker 1: What's the problem. Is it just the site of the bottle.

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Speaker 2: It seems to be that that is the that is

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Speaker 2: the problem, and it may be that they think that

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Speaker 2: it's getting in the way of customer service. I think

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Speaker 2: that actually, if you've got hydrated people who are comfortable

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Speaker 2: and happy, they're going to give much better customer service

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Speaker 2: than people who are dying for a drink.

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Speaker 1: How long can these these workers go without a break,

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Speaker 1: you know, between being able to get to their drink bottles.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's requirements under the law for people to be

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Speaker 2: able to have a break every two hours or two

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Speaker 2: and a half hours, but there might be other reasons

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Speaker 2: that people need water bottles. It may be, and I

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Speaker 2: think that also one of the things that medical professions

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Speaker 2: is is that we need to hydrate more than we

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Speaker 2: actually do. And it's really basically it's a health and

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Speaker 2: safety issue as far as I concerned.

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Speaker 1: Now New Water's franchises, Isn't it so this would vary

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Speaker 1: store to store, wouldn't it?

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Speaker 2: It does? It does, and some you know, and some

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Speaker 2: employees are much better than others in terms of making

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Speaker 2: sure that their employees are comfortable and hydrated, whereas you know,

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Speaker 2: some are much more dictatory and not willing to kind

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Speaker 2: of provide that for workers.

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Speaker 1: I find this really odd, rud because I would have

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Speaker 1: thought that if you're standing at a checkout. You've got

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of places you can hide your bottle

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Speaker 1: underneath the counter, can't you.

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Speaker 2: Budly, I couldn't agree more, and that is the argument

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Speaker 2: we've made when we've talked to other companies.

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Speaker 1: Rud thanks very much, appreciate it. Rud Hugh's Deputy Secretary

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Speaker 1: of Retail at the Workers First Union got a statement

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Speaker 1: from food Stuff so they say there's no national food

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Speaker 1: Stuff's policy on this, but we expect our store teams

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Speaker 1: to be fair and reasonable to look after their teams.

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