Arbitrator to decide appropriate length of bathroom breaks

Two workers at the Springhill Farms hog-slaughtering plant in Meepawa, Manitoba, have filed grievances against their employer. The reason: the man and the woman were both issued warnings earlier this year over taking too long in the bathroom [1]. The man and woman each lost $160 in "perfect attendance" bonuses due to excessive pottying.

Employees at the processing plant are required to raise their hand when they need to use the bathroom outside of their regular breaks. The extra breaks are occasionally timed, but the company has not told union officials exactly how long the two penalized employees were spending away from the production line. A union spokesman admits, though, that the breaks were more than five minutes. "What are they supposed to do?" quips Al Patterson of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832. "Cross their legs?"

When negotiations failed to resolve the issue, the parties agreed to bring in an arbitrator, who will hear the case sometime next year. Springhill Farms declined to comment on the case.

Ford Motor Company had a similar issue last year [2]; their employees are allotted forty-eight minutes of down(load) time per shift. But the case of the hog-slaughter plant is the first time we're aware of that an outside party will attempt to decide once and for all (at least for all hog-slaughterers): How Long Is Too Long?

Exactly HOW will the arbitrator decide this? Should coffee/cigarette/phone call breaks be counted separately from bathroom breaks? Should workers be paid for one but not the other? Are a lunch period and two paid breaks enough time in which to do one's business? Or should the company have to pay when pooping people postpone plant production?

Speaking for myself, I can feel the difference [3] between when it's going to be a quickie and when it's going to require reading material; but I can't help it if the urge hits when I'm on the clock! What do Poop Reporters think? Is this an infringement on Pooping Rights? Or does an employer have at least some say over when (and how long) you get to poop?