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French Toilet Ladies Are Fighting To Keep Their Jobs

French Toilet Ladies Are Fighting To Keep Their Jobs


The female attendants who watch over public toilets in Paris have had another setback in their struggle to stay employed. The women are called “dames pipi,” and any woman who is over 50 can remember when they were an important part of the experience of using a public bathroom in Paris. The “pee pee ladies” have dwindled to only 12 in number, and soon they may be gone forever.

A Dutch firm called “2theloo”, a “toilet concept” company that creates “boutique restrooms,” recently got the contract to manage the public restrooms in Paris. The pee pee ladies were promptly laid off, and since they’ve been protesting in Montmartre and outside Notre Dame Cathedral. The union representing the dames pipi is arguing in court that they should be kept. But this week a court refused to give the ladies a hearing, so the case could drag on for months while the women are unemployed.

Lawyers for 2theloo say that their employees “accompany customers to the stalls; speak several languages; and sell items of toiletry like paper-rolls and tooth-brushes.” Therefore, they contend, the job has completely changed in nature, making the ladies, who are mostly in their 60’s, obsolete.