Labor & Employment Law

Hyatt Hotel Housekeepers in 12 Cities File Injury Complaints with OSHA

By James Parks

When you check into a luxury hotel you expect a clean room and a nicely made bed. But the work it takes to make that room sparkle often is back-breaking and dangerous for the housekeepers who do it.

Today, housekeepers at 12 Hyatt hotels in eight cities across the United States, with the assistance of UNITE HERE, filed injury complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for repetitive motion and other kinds of injuries sustained on the job. Complaints were filed by workers in Hyatt Hotels in San Antonio, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Honolulu, and Indianapolis. In a telephone press call, the housekeepers pointed out that some of the hotels do not have union contracts. Having a union would be one way to get safety issues resolved, they said.

The OSHA complaints recommend that OSHA direct the hotels to:

• Use fitted sheets to reduce the number of times housekeepers must lift 100-plus pound mattresses to tuck in sheets.
• Provide long-handled mops and dusters, so workers do not have to get down on their hands and knees to clean the floors or climb bathtubs to reach high surfaces.
• Set reasonable room quotas, so workers no longer have to rush to finish rooms, risking slips on wet bathroom floors or tripping over furniture.

A major peer-reviewed study of hotel worker injuries at 50 U.S. hotels operated by the five largest U.S. hotel companies found that housekeepers working at Hyatt hotels had the highest injury rate of the hotels studied. The study, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (AJIM) in February 2010, also found significant differences in hotel injuries by race and gender. Women hotel workers were 50 percent more likely to be injured than men, and Hispanic women suffered nearly double the risk of injury of their white female counterparts.

In a press conference call today, housekeepers reported being required to clean as many as 30 rooms a day, nearly double what is commonly considered standard in the industry. Speeding up work by raising the room quota or adding room amenities can strain the body and lead to more accidents, said Gary Orr, UNITE HERE?s ergonomic expert. .

During the call, Maria Carmen Dominquez, who worked at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio as a room attendant before injuringing a tendon and permanently debilitatining her shoulder, said:

After surgery and months of physical therapy, I am still in pain any time I lift my arm, even just to get dressed or brush my daughter’s hair.

Dominguez also alleges that workers are discouraged from reporting injuries for fear of punishment, and that management at some hotels have created an illegal monetary disincentive for reporting injuries called “Safety Bingo,” with a lottery prize for housekeepers that grows every day no injury is reported.

Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) told reporters:

We have much to do in the realm of worker safety across the board?8 to 12 million workers suffer work-related injuries on an annual basis. These hard-working men and women are at risk due to overwork and other factors?factors that are readily preventable.

Click here to learn more about how hotel housekeepers are getting hurt.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 09, 2010 (boomark / email).