With toilet paper, is the only thing that is acceptable according to a Queensland company, Townsville Engineering Industries.  A Filipino on a working visa employed by the company was sacked this week for not going to the toilet the Australian way.   He cleans himself, as do many Asians, with water rather than toilet paper.

According to the worker,  Amador Bernabe:

"I went to go to the toilet and I took a bottle of water when my foreman saw me and he said, ‘you can’t bring the water in there’,"

The foreman followed Mr Bernabe into the toilet despite his protests.

"I said it’s my personal hygiene. I didn’t break any law, I didn’t break any rules of the company, why can’t I do this, and he said he would report me to the manager.”

He was called into the manager’s office the next day, and in Mr Bernabe’s words:

"He asked me what had happened and I explained to him and he said if I didn’t follow the Australian way I would be immediately terminated and I said ‘sir, then you better terminate me’."

So they did.

This has, rightly, attracted criticism from unions and politicians. 

Australian Manufacturing Worker’s Union state organiser Rick Finch said the incident was shocking.

"I think it is atrocious, an invasion of a person’s rights and cultural beliefs," he said.

"The paradox of the toilet and a person’s actions is something that no boss can even think about interfering with and the thought that bosses think they have the control to get involved in the toiletry is a gross invasion of an employee’s privacy.

"If it wasn’t so disgusting it would almost be laughable.”

He also went on to say:

"At the end of the day we are a multicultural society and if they want to import workers then they need to be tolerant of other workers and other cultures," he said.

"They don’t own these workers, they are borrowed and hired to carry out a job.

"The thought these bosses think they can lord it over these workers is insane.

"What it shows is the company’s complete arrogance for workers’ rights."

But the best quote was from the local MP, Craig Wallace:

"Employers should be worried how their business operates rather than what their employees do in the loo,".

Good call!

Not only that, but the company should also be worried about the foreman’s shit fetish and the manager’s encouragement of it.