Work Challenges and Health of Immigrant Hotel Housekeepers: Part 2

Background:

Hotel housekeepers’ major responsibility is to perform cleaning tasks. In the course of performing their duties, hotel housekeepers are disproportionately exposed to multiple workplace hazards (i.e., physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial hazards) that put them at risk of adverse health consequences. This study aims to discover the occupational and health challenges encountered by immigrant hotel housekeepers in Orlando, Florida, and help hotel management to develop strategies to improve their occupational health.

Methods:

This study adopted an interviewer-administered survey method for data collection. Data were collected from members of the United Here Union, Local 7373 in Orlando, Florida. Trained Spanish–English bilingual associates of the Union administered the surveys through interviews with participants. Descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression were employed to analyze data ( n = 140) using SPSS 22.

Findings:

This study shows that Florida hotel housekeepers participating in this study worked under great time pressures, endured excessive workloads, did not have enough time to rest and recover, and often skipped or shortened lunch breaks. Participants believed that their employers valued work productivity more than their safety and health. More than half of the respondents experienced racial discrimination at their workplaces.

Conclusion/Application to Practice:

The article brings an important contribution to the awareness of housekeepers’ feelings toward their work and the need for effective safety and health policies and programs.

Occupational Health and Safety of Immigrant Hotel Housekeepers

BACKGROUND

The accommodations sector is one of the largest employers of immigrant and minority workers in the United States. Hotel housekeepers represent the industry's largest workforce while facing difficult work conditions, health hazards, and psychological stress. This is one of the few empirical studies that address the working conditions of housekeepers in the United States and their perspective of health challenges they face.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey study was conducted with hotel housekeepers (N = 140) in Florida and in collaboration with the local labor union as a rapid assessment of occupational health and safety risk exposures, work-related injuries, coping mechanisms, and perceived management responses. Experienced union workers recruited study participants and administered interviewer-administered surveys. The analysis included descriptive statistics and multivariate regression.

FINDINGS

Sampled hotel housekeepers were found to work under significant time pressures to complete excessive workloads and to experience chemical and biological exposures and physical and psychosocial strains. Poor work equipment/insufficient supplies had a negative impact on hotel housekeepers' health, these include heavy wet towels vacuum cleaners having a significant effect on (p < .001) sprains and strains. Poor cleaning supplies had a significant effect (p < .001) on chemical burns. Other significant findings are provided in the article.

CONCLUSION/APPLICATION TO PRACTICE

While housekeeping work conditions include many challenges, relatively simple changes by hotels' management can provide potential relief and improve workers' health and safety outcomes, such as functional equipment, sufficient inventory, management support, and proper rest breaks-subsequently increasing workers' health and reducing accidents, and thus potentially improving productivity at a relatively low cost.

Understanding the effects of COVID-19 on the health and safety of immigrant hospitality workers in the United States

The U.S. tourism and hospitality workforce is disproportionately represented by immigrants and minorities, particularly in low-wage jobs with adverse work conditions. Immigrant hotel and foodservice workers face excess chronic stress and related syndemic risks, exacerbated by social, political, and economic inequities. COVID-19 has suddenly intensified the stressful and already difficult circumstances of immigrant service sector workers. The travel and tourism sector is one of the hardest hit due to widespread travel restrictions and shelter-in-place orders designed to curb infection spread. Restrictions and lockdowns have devastated tourism-dependent destinations and displaced millions of vulnerable workers, causing them to lose their livelihoods. Compared to the general workforce, a sizeable increase in occupational stress has already been observed in the hospitality/tourism sector over the past 15-20 years. COVID-19 and related fears add further strains on immigrant hotel and foodservice workers, potentially exerting a significant toll on mental and physical health and safety.

Perceived workplace mistreatment: Case of Latina hotel housekeepers

BACKGROUND

Latina hotel housekeepers' social class, gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, and United States immigration status render them particularly vulnerable to workplace mistreatment.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to reveal the array of policy- and interpersonal-related mistreatment experienced by Latina hotel housekeepers in the southeastern United States employed at 75 local hotels which included 4-star, 3-star, 2-star, and 1-star properties.

METHODS

This ethnographic study involved 27 in-depth interviews with Latina hotel housekeepers. Using semi-structured in-depth interview guides, participants were interviewed until collected data reached saturation. Data were coded to explore themes and relationships for the housekeepers' work environments, and thick descriptions of these environments were developed.

RESULTS

Participants ranged in work experience from 1 to 15 years, with all but one unable to reach full-time status, and were paid between $7.25 and $8.00 per hour. Policy-related phenomena, such as low pay, lack of paid sick leave or overtime, and absence of appropriate cleaning tools or protective equipment were all perceived as forms of mistreatment by Latina hotel housekeepers. Interpersonal mistreatment in the form of supervisor favoritism, unfair work assignments, biased allocation of cleaning supplies, disrespect, and verbal abuse due to ethnicity was also perceived.

CONCLUSIONS

Latina hotel housekeepers endure mistreatment that impacts their psychosocial and physical occupational health. We provide recommendations to minimize workplace mistreatment and improve well-being of Latina hotel housekeepers.