Popular DC hotel exposes employees to more than two dozen workplace safety, health hazards; faces $76K in fines

Employer: Wardman Hotel LLC, doing business as Marriott Wardman Park Hotel

Site: 2600 Woodley Road, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Citations issued: On Feb. 24, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations for 12 serious and 14 other-than-serious violations.

Investigation findings: OSHA’s investigation began Aug. 24, 2015, in response to a complaint alleging hazards at the hotel.

OSHA inspectors identified a number of hazards, including:

• Inadequate personal protective equipment for employees working with chemical products.
• Deficiencies with the documentation of the OSHA 300 log.
• Failure to report a worker hospitalization to OSHA within 24 hours.
• Employees cleaning with compressed air in excess of 30 pounds per square inch.
• Electrical hazards.
• Deficiencies with the hotel’s energy control program.
• Fall hazards as high as four feet.
• Deficiencies in the hotel’s bloodborne pathogen and hazard communication programs.

The employer has 15 business days from receipt of the citation and proposed penalty to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Proposed penalty: $76,700

Quote: “Each of these hazards leaves employees at the hotel exposed to unnecessary safety and health risks,” said Nadira Janack, director of OSHA’s Baltimore Washington Area Office. “Employers have a legal responsibility to protect workers on the job. Anything less is unacceptable.”

View the citations:    

• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/WardmanHotelLLC_1110296.pdf  
• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/WardmanHotelLLC_1087109.pdf

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint; or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Parsippany Area Office at 973-263-1003.