British gas staff hit out as water supply cut
BLOCKED loos full of excrement, 30-minute queues for the toilet and rationed bottles of water – those are just some of the things staff at British Gas have claimed happened after the water supply at their Cardiff office was cut off.
British Gas has categorically denied the claims, telling the Echo most of them were not correct, although it admitted it was an “unprecedented situation”.
The British Gas office, at 4 Callaghan Square in Cardiff, had no running water from 10am on Wednesday, September 11, until the end of the day.
All 500 employees were initially told to leave the building if they needed the toilet but this apparently did little to ease the situation.
Disgruntled employees have contacted the Echo’s website WalesOnline, telling stories of queues of up to 30 people waiting to use just one toilet in the adjacent Eversheds building; no running water to wash their hands in the gents toilets and blocked toilets full to the brim with excrement. Some even say they resorted to heading in to the city centre to use the public toilets.
One employee questioned how food was still being prepared and served by the catering staff, despite their being no running water in the building.
The employee, who did not give his name but said he had worked for the company for more than 20 years, said it was “an absolute disgrace”.
He said: “There was no explanation about how it had happened or how long it was going on for.
“I don’t know how they expected the building, with over 500 staff, to keep running efficiently with no running water.
“The gents were available but there was no running water to wash our hands. They eventually locked this and we went next door, which is owned by the same landlord, where 20-30 people queued for just one disabled toilet.
“They were still serving food and I don’t know how they were managing that, with no running water.
“It was a joke,” he added. Another employee emailed Online and made similar claims.
They wrote: “I’m an employee who was working in the Cardiff office yesterday.
“Though the men’s urinals are waterless, we couldn’t use them as the toilets were locked due to the unflushed stalls being full of human excrement.
“We did have access to the building opposite for toilet facilities but there were queues of 20-30 minutes to use them.
“We were told initially that only those with medical conditions would be getting bottled water and the rest of us would have to purchase drinks from either the shop on site or vending machines.
“They only started coming around with 500ml bottles after 3pm, five hours after the water was off. Wales
“The irony of the situation yesterday was that we take calls for customers who have British Gas Homecare and those who call us where they have no running water or toilet facilities are treated as emergencies.”
A spokesperson for British Gas said the food being served had been prepared before the water supply was lost.
“This was an unprecedented situation and we did all we could to provide our staff with toilet facilities and drinking water throughout the day,” they said.
“We appreciate and thank all our employees for pulling together to ensure we continued to serve our customers.”
Some staff claimed however, that not everyone was given a bottle of water.
A third employee claimed: “There were not nearly enough for everyone to have a bottle of water.
“For the first few hours we were provided four small bottles of water to cover approximately 100 staff on my floor and we were told this was only for those with disabilities or emergency use.
“Towards the end of the day more water was provided but not enough for even half the staff.”
They also alleged that the men’s urinals were not available all day – as the company had previously claimed to WalesOnline – as managers locked the doors to the toilets “for some time”.
They added: “There were queues of up to 30 minutes out of the door to use the toilets in the adjoining building and then these also became blocked.
“Many staff had to resort to using facilities in the town centre.”
The majority of staff were left feeling “wound up” about how the whole situation was handled by the company, said one employee.
“It was terrible,” he said.
“They shouldn’t have operated the building until it was fixed.”