Access to safe, clean and appropriate sanitation facilities is a fundamental occupational health, safety and human dignity issue across transport supply chains. Inadequate sanitation exposes workers to significant and preventable health risks, undermines safety and equality, and exposes companies to legal and reputational risk.
Transport work is often characterised by high mobility, tight schedules and long or unsocial hours, limiting workers’ ability to access toilets and sanitation facilities and to take breaks. Scheduling pressure, unrealistic turnaround times and performance targets discourage and prevent workers from accessing facilities when needed.
Lack of toilets, handwashing facilities, safe rest areas and even access to drinking water creates serious and cumulative health risks. Workers may delay using facilities, avoid hydration or resort to unsafe alternatives – increasing the risk of urinary tract infections, kidney and gastrointestinal complications, dehydration and long-term health impacts. In safety-critical transport environments, impaired concentration caused by dehydration or physical discomfort can pose risks to workers, passengers, the public, vehicles, vessels and infrastructure.
Women transport workers face particular harm. Biological needs, including menstruation, pregnancy and menopause, require timely and private access to appropriate facilities. Where toilets are unsafe, poorly located, shared without privacy or not provided at all, women face increased exposure to violence and harassment and may be deterred from entering or remaining in the sector.
Inadequate sanitation is therefore a barrier to recruitment, retention and progression and contributes to workforce challenges and systemic gender inequality in the transport industry. Older workers, disabled workers and those with medical conditions may also face heightened vulnerability where urgent or accessible facilities are not available.
Access to sanitation facilities is closely interconnected with other risks outlined in this guidance, including high mobility work, violence and harassment, isolation and lone working, subcontracting and precarious employment and workforce challenges.
Companies and supply chain actors must treat access to safe and dignified sanitation facilities as a non-negotiable occupational safety and human rights obligation across transport supply chains.
As part of HRDD, companies and supply chain actors must assess transport workers’ access to safe, clean, secure and gender-appropriate sanitation facilities, drinking water and rest areas across direct, contracted and subcontracted operations.
To prevent and mitigate harm, HRDD must also examine scheduling models, turnaround times, route planning and performance targets and ensure that workers are able to take necessary breaks and have access to sanitation and rest facilities.
Provision must go beyond minimum compliance. Facilities must be safe, hygienic, adequately maintained, accessible and appropriately located to prevent exposure to violence and harassment. They must meet the specific needs of women, men and gender-diverse workers, as well as older workers, disabled workers and those with medical conditions.
Accountability for sanitation access must extend throughout contracting chains, including mobile work environments.
Effective implementation requires engagement with workers and their trade union representatives, including cooperation with the ITF and its affiliated unions, to identify deficiencies, monitor standards and ensure protections are applied consistently.
Failure to ensure transport workers’ access to safe sanitation exposes companies to health and safety breaches, discrimination claims, workforce and supply chain instability, legal liability and reputational damage.