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.
Keywords: co-workers; discrimination; hotel housekeepers; supervisors; workplace health and safety.