Paris 'wee-wee ladies' rise up in protest

For a month now, 11 public toilet attendants in Paris have staged daily protests in the tourist haven of Montmartre after they were laid off by managers who want to transform their workplaces into trendy "boutique restrooms".

"They want to create luxury stores and say we don't have the profile they're looking for, they want us to speak several languages," says Mahliya Fiokouna, one of the protesting "dames pipi", or "wee-wee ladies" as they are known in France.

For seven years, Fiokouna has been cleaning toilets in popular tourist sites in the French capital such as the Sacre-Coeur basilica perched on a hill in Montmartre, the Notre-Dame cathedral and the Place de l'Etoile at the top of the upmarket Champs-Elysees avenue.

At 45, she is the youngest of the protesters, a majority of whom are around 60 and have been working as toilet attendants for decades.

But they were all laid off when Dutch company 2theloo took on a handful of toilets in July that had until then been managed by a French firm.

"We were flabbergasted, it's as if we didn't exist anymore. I can't sleep, I have three children and rent to pay," says Fiokouna.

2theloo specialises in creating high-end public toilets that combine the obligatory restrooms with a store that sells everything from bags to cuddly toys.

"At 2theloo we believe that going to the toilet in public places should not be something that stresses you out," it says on its website.

"It should be an extraordinary experience. Even better than at home."

Under French regulations governing the cleaning sector, workers must be kept on by new employers, but 2theloo argues it will be creating an entirely different service and is therefore not bound by these rules.

The toilet attendants have taken their former employer and 2theloo to court.