Three Boston city councilors plan to ask for an investigation into how to protect hotel workers and guests from health hazards in light of a federal investigation at the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hotel.
Housekeepers at the hotel, which frequently has guests being treated next door at Massachusetts General Hospital, filed a claim with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration saying they are not properly equipped to clean blood, used syringes, and other waste from hospital patients.
The councilors -- Josh Zakim, Ayanna Pressley, and Tim McCarthy, members of the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, & Communities -- will call for a hearing at Wednesday’s council meeting.
The councilors said they were “shocked” to learn of conditions at the Wyndham.
“The inadequate protections for staff at the Wyndham against the risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens is a health hazard,” they said in a statement.
“It is appalling that management of the Wyndham has not provided sufficient protection for workers who clean up blood and other bodily fluids, nor established a consistent procedure for disposal of needles and syringes.
Wyndham general manager Tom Chmura denied that housekeepers are working in unsafe conditions and questioned the source of the allegations, which stemmed from a report issued by Unite Here Local 26, the hospitality workers’ union trying to organize the workers.
Source: Boston Globe