The invisible jobs and hazards of school custodial and building maintenance work
By Dorothy Wigmore
Schools need them. They’re key health and safety prevention staff and problem-solvers. But they are often invisible, underappreciated until they’re needed.
They are the custodial and building maintenance staff.
Take Paterson School District’s Kleo Papadatos. He’s a head custodian, monitoring the contract cleaners/custodians and doing basic preventive maintenance. At Paterson for 10 years, his responsibilities include the boiler, air quality, pest management and more.
When that heat matters, it’s his first priority in the morning. After email, there’s a walk-through—turning on lights, checking temperatures and rodent traps, listening for running toilets and dealing with whatever he finds. Other things get checked at other times: air filters, the hot water heater, exit and exterior lights, and the sump pump.
“It’s just preventive stuff,” he says, informed by a boiler’s license, certification as an educational facilities manager, integrated pest management (IPM) coordinator training, qualifications as the designated person for indoor air quality issues, and experience.
With those skills, and what he’s learned as a recent president of the Paterson Custodial and Maintenance Association and part-time NJEA UniServ consultant, he’s often asked about health and safety hazards.
“I think people who don’t mind rocking the boat come to me saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got this issue, what’s going on?’” Papadatos says. “We work together and try to figure it out. If there’s something going on in a teacher’s room, and it’s not getting done, I’ll tell them ‘These are the steps you need to take.’”
What about the job’s hazards?
There are few studies about the hazards custodians face. One found that, over four years, school custodial workers’ injury rates were four times more than the overall injury rate for other district jobs. The worst hazards involved cleaning and moving furniture, handling garbage, and cleaning washrooms and floors. Another found falls and slips were almost 30% of all injuries; 45% led to strains, sprains and ruptures, many in the upper body.
Despite video training about working at heights (e.g., on the roof), Papadatos has no fall protection. He wears headphones for the noise of the boiler next his office and, until recently, had rain coming in along its outside wall. (It got solved after several complaints.) Other custodians often have no window or fresh air in their spaces.
Walk-throughs mean he’s inhaling airborne hazards (including viruses). When contractors do floor cleaning or stripping, he’s glad the district uses only a hydrogen peroxide-based cleaner and that floor strippers are less nasty these days and used less often. Not all schools use less toxic products.
Despite safety glasses and knee or elbow pads, there still are awkward positions, heavy tools, electrical hazards and confined spaces. Custodians handling garbage may deal with infectious materials, sharp objects and heavy weights.
Buildings and grounds workers need to “rock the boat” about their hazards, says Chris James. A carpenter by trade, he’s been a Bridgewater-Raritan Regional District building maintenance worker for 15 years. A part-time NJEA UniServ consultant, James is the negotiations chair and a vice president for the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association.
“We need to get over that fear and stick up for ourselves through a health and safety committee,” he says. “They need to know it’s okay to stick up for our rights, to be the one that says ‘No, I’m not doing that off a stepladder; I need an elevated work platform.’ That’s often a stumbling block for our group. Sometimes you don’t want to ask for help. But that’s why we pay dues. That’s why we have NJEA, to have our back.”
Security is a big issue in his job. Inspections and lockdown drills lead to work orders to replace door locks. He spends a lot of time fixing other door parts so they open or close properly in a swipe card system. Concrete often heaves right outside a door, solved sometimes by chipping it out, repouring, and replacing the door threshold.
Besides hurry-up-wait aspects of their jobs, building workers deal with hazards like airborne silica from grinding concrete (it causes cancer and respiratory diseases), chemicals, working at heights (requiring fall protection devices, procedures and training), and asbestos.
Although the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) was passed in 1986, a study analyzing state school inspections between 2008 and 2017 found half the schools (229) had damaged friable asbestos (the fibres can be easily crumbled) and 121 had airborne asbestos fibres. Worse still, many schools had no warning labels, no protection for custodial staff and others, and incomplete asbestos management plans, all legal requirements.
“Then there’s the years of cake-layered dust, whether you’re changing air filters or going above the ceiling, taking out ceiling tiles, doing any plumbing work,” James says. “It’s not just the asbestos.”
Without standard procedures, he uses his high efficiency respirator while others wear less effective dust masks.
His co-worker groundskeepers deal with lawns, trees, sports fields and help move computers, art shows, and more. Their hazards include noise, poor equipment design, awkward positions, lifting and carrying, extreme temperatures and chemicals (including pesticides). Tree and other landscape work is particularly dangerous, leading to anything from cuts and sprains to death from falls or equipment roll-overs.
Why does this work matter?
“What we do, collectively, as a department, is try to make the learning environment the healthiest, safest and most comfortable place possible,” James says. “We want our staff and students to breathe the healthiest air.”
“I’m like an apartment building super,” Papadatos says. “I run a building. I take care of everything. If you have an issue, you come tell me, I’ll take care of it or help you figure out how to do that.”
Dorothy Wigmore is a long-time health and safety specialist and New Jersey Work Environment Council consultant. She has worked in Canada, the U.S. and Mozambique, focusing on prevention and worker participation to solve job-related hazards.
What can health and safety committees or local unions do?
Custodians and maintenance staff can be powerful partners to, or members of, local association health and safety committees. So the first step is to get to know your school district’s custodians and building/grounds maintenance staff. Then:
- Use their skills and knowledge of the building’s systems.
- Get their help to investigate, document and complain about hazards.
- Involve them in committees and discussions.
- Ask what hazards they face and how they should be fixed. Keep an eye out for ones they may miss. Support them to get proper protections.
- Oppose outsourcing/privatising custodial, janitorial and maintenance work.
Resources
Labor Occupational Health Program
Custodians of Safety: A Health and Safety Tip Sheet for School Custodians
bit.ly/cust-safe-tips
NJEA Review
“Safeguarding Custodians Promotes School Safety and Health,” November 2015 njea.org/safe-custodians
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Landscape and Horticultural Services osha.gov/landscaping/hazards