Press Release

For Immediate Release

4/24/2006

New Study Reveals Hotel Housekeeper Work is Dangerous, and Getting More Dangerous

Vast Majority of Housekeepers Coping with Persistent Pain on the Job  Addition of Luxury Amenities Correlates with Increasing Rates of Injury

(New York, NY) – A new study released today, “Creating Luxury, Enduring Pain” couples new research with the stories of hotel housekeepers to paint a dramatic picture of the work of a hotel housekeeper. Findings show that behind the luxury and comfort that housekeepers provide for hotel guests is a pattern of persistent pain and injury.

The report utilizes the first comprehensive analysis of employer records of worker injuries, including records of the major five hotel companies. The analysis covers 7 years (1999-2005) and 87 hotel properties with approximately 40,000 hotel employees. The report finds that not only are housekeepers injured more frequently than other hotel and service workers, but this problem is only getting worse as hotel companies implement room changes including heavier beds and linens and in room amenities like coffee makers and treadmills.

Housekeepers endure this workplace pain and continue to work because they value their jobs and their customers. Valessie McCaskill, a housekeeper at the Chicago Hilton and Towers explains, “Some days my leg would swell up and I would literally limp from room to room. When the pain was at its worst, I would sit on the beds and cry because it hurt so much. In the rooms, at least no one would see me.”

Unfortunately, the study finds that stories like Valessie’s are all too common.

The statistical analyses of hotel housekeeper pain and injury is based on recent work by a group of occupational medicine experts in conjunction with UNITE HERE. The results were presented at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s 2006 National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) symposium last week. Using hotel employer records of housekeeper injuries, combined with evidence from earlier surveys, the study reveals that housekeepers face prevalent pain and disproportionate rates of workplace injury.

Key Findings:

• In a survey of over 600 hotel housekeepers, 91% reported experiencing workplace pain. This pain is so severe that 66% of hotel housekeepers who reported workplace pain took pain medication and 67% visited a doctor.

• In the 1999 to 2005 period, hotel housekeepers faced an injury rate of 10.4%, which is over 86% higher than the injury rate experienced by non-housekeepers (5.6%).

• Between 1999 and 2005, housekeepers faced a 61.4% higher risk of injury compared to all hotel workers.

• Hotel rooms have become more hazardous places to work in recent years. Between 2002-2005 period, housekeepers had a 71% higher risk of injury relative to all hotel workers compared to 47% in the 1999 - 2001 period.

According to Laura Punnett, an occupational epidemiologist and ergonomist at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and one of the coauthors of the recent NIOSH presentation on housekeeping health and safety: “Work like hotel room cleaning has been shown over and over again to increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, such as low back pain and tendonitis. The prevalence of low back pain and related symptoms is unusually high in hotel workers.”

The evidence strongly implicates increasingly excessive workloads in the rising rates of musculoskeletal disorders among hotel housekeepers. Hotel housekeeping workloads and the physical demands of the work have increased significantly in recent years as the hotels have upgraded and introduced new room amenities like luxury beds with heavy mattresses, triple sheeting and heavy duvets.

Leticia Ceballos, a hotel housekeeper at Glendale Hilton (Los Angeles): “I have sharp pains when I bend. Putting the sheets on the beds and cleaning the toilets and bathtubs hurt the most. After the hotel put in the heavier beds and linens, the pain became more severe.”

Hotel workers across North America are coming together to improve working conditions through the Hotel Workers Rising campaign. In addition to improved wages and benefits, workplace pain and injury is a major concern for hotel workers, and local unions often include proposals to improve workplace safety as part of their collective bargaining agreements. Safe workloads are expected to be in issue in many cities this year as 60,000 hotel workers negotiate new contracts.

For a PDF of the report, click here.

To learn more about the report, or ask questions of housekeepers and experts, reporters can join a conference call on Tuesday, April 25 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. To RSVP for the call or for more information email or call Amanda Cooper at acooper@unitehere.org or 212-332-9376.

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