By the Numbers – Housekeeping

DID YOU KNOW?

Approximately two-thirds of all workplace accidents can be traced back to housekeeping issues. And the statistics presented by the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) are sobering.

In 2015, 852 workplace deaths were recorded in Canada. Add to these fatalities the 232,629 claims accepted for lost time due to a work-related injury or disease, and the fact that these statistics only include what is reported and accepted by the compensation boards, and it is safe to say that the total number of workers impacted is even higher.

That’s approximately 155,654 housekeeping related incidents in Canada alone. While there are a number of reasons that good housekeeping should be made a priority in the workplace, trips, slips and falls are definitely at the top of the list.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 1 million maids and housekeeping cleaners currently work in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2013a). Almost half are employed in the traveler accommodations industry, which “provid[es] short-term lodging in facilities known as hotels, motor hotels, resort hotels, and motels” (US Census Bureau, 2012). Hotel housekeepers (hereinafter housekeepers) make beds, restock linens, dust, vacuum, and perform cleaning duties as assigned in guest rooms and other areas of the hotel establishment. While housekeeping is only 1 of 226 unique occupations in traveler accommodations, housekeepers account for the largest proportion–approximately 25%–of all the industry’s workers (BLS, 2013a). Most housekeepers are female (89%) and self-identify with an ethnic minority group (44% Hispanic or Latina, 22% other minority; BLS, 2014). Seminal studies demonstrate that work-related bodily pain and…