A scathing report issued Tuesday details the horrific conditions in which Baltimore city employees must work, with some having to beg for toilet paper under facility policy.
Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Cumming found earlier this month that Department of Public Works employees at the Cherry Hill Reedbird Yard had been working in extreme heat without the city providing them with cold water or adequate cooling facilities. CBS News reports.
He has since visited eight other facilities and returned to Reedbird Yard, where he reports working primarily with solid waste workers, and found even more problems that… details in a 46-page report.
At the Bowley’s Lane facility, Cumming said employees have to ask for toilet paper before using the bathroom because the men’s restrooms are not stocked with the essential item.
“There was no toilet paper, and it’s not like there was just no toilet paper – that’s how they operate,” he told CBS News.
Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Cumming released a scathing report Tuesday detailing deplorable conditions at Department of Public Works facilities.
He visited the Bowley Lane facility and noticed a number of problems.
Cumming explained in his report that “toilet paper is stored in a warehouse with a supply employee,” a practice he implored the Department of Public Works to “stop immediately.”
She wrote that instead, toilet paper should be placed at the stations for all workers and laborers who handle solid waste.
The report also notes that some Department of Public Works employees suffered heat-related illnesses, and at least one employee fainted.
At the Bowley Lane facility, Cumming said they “have hot water running” in the locker rooms.
“They had a fan that barely worked and they also had an air conditioner that only went up to 84 degrees,” she told CBS.
Some department vehicles also lacked working air conditioning.
Cumming is now requesting “all records of heat-related illness training” that the DPW has provided to its employees over the past three years.
In the facilities, employees must ask for toilet paper before using the bathroom.
Toilet paper is stored in a separate warehouse and not at the stands, the report said.
Additionally, Cumming noted a lot of equipment that could help improve working conditions for DPW employees that is sitting idle.
“The OIG observed approximately 20 cases of unopened coolers and dozens of unopened insulated water dispensers,” the report says.
‘A supervisor stated that the insulated water dispensers did not fit in the newer garbage trucks and that some employees did not want them.’
Some of the equipment was even stored in the facility’s showers.
At the Bowley Lane facility, temperatures were 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some of the problems were reported at the Cherry Hill facility, the same one Cumming had cited earlier this month.
“They were aware of it,” he said of Department of Public Works supervisors. “These conditions are not going to change. We have to improve this.”
The Department of Public Works previously told CBS Baltimore that improvements would be made, but Cumming said the changes must go into effect immediately.
“Telling me that something will be done in three years is not enough, because in three years we might not have money for any of it,” he said.
“We need to address these basic human needs now.”
Cumming also said employees were left in the heat without cold water to drink.
He said he took city Chief Administrative Officer Faith Leach to two of the facilities Tuesday morning to show her some of the deplorable conditions, but noted there were some slight improvements.
Still, Cumming said the DPW hasn’t seen the last of her.
“Oh, I’ll definitely go, but I won’t tell you or anyone else when I’ll be arriving,” he said. told WMAR.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Department of Public Works for comment.
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