HOUSEKEPPING DUTY

Housekeeping in a hotel is a very physically demanding job that includes many, varied tasks. Typically, in this case study, housekeepers were responsible for cleaning 16 rooms per shift. The actual amount of work depends on the size of the room and the number of beds. A housekeeper needs between fifteen and thirty minutes to do one room. A housekeeper carries out the following tasks:

• making beds (Figures 1a, 1b, 1c)
• tidying rooms (Figure 2)
• cleaning and polishing toilets, taps, sinks, bathtubs and mirrors (Figures 3a, 3b)
• washing floors
• removing stains
• vacuuming

Figure 1a	Figure 1b	Figure 1c
Making Beds

Figure 2
Tidying a room

Figure 3a	Figure 3b
Cleaning

What are the risk factors of housekeeping?
The main risk factors for repetitive motion injuries (RMIs) in housekeeping are:

• heavy physical workload and excessive bodily motions which are a high risk for back injuries
• forceful upper limb motions in awkward positions which are a high risk for neck or shoulder and arm injuries

Space limitations require workers to use many uncomfortable postures. These are:

• standing or walking
• stooping
• squatting
• kneeling
• stretching
• reaching
• bending
• twisting
• crouching

A housekeeper changes body position every three seconds while cleaning a room. If we assume that the average cleaning time for each room is twenty-five minutes, we can estimate that a housekeeper assumes 8,000 different body postures every shift.
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