(Washington, D.C.) – Ten congressional tunnel workers who service the utility tunnels beneath the U.S. Capitol complex filed a request yesterday morning for a Health Hazard Evaluation with the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH). These are the same workers that late last year filed a whistleblower complaint against their employer, the Architect of the Capitol (AoC), for retaliation after they divulged their situation to Congress and the media. The workers are represented by the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and the law firm of Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP (KMB). A copy of the NIOSH request is available on GAP’s Web site at www.whistleblower.org.
The workers previously blew the whistle on a number of violations creating an unsafe work environment, including: falling slabs of concrete; the lack of a communications system to broadcast emergency information; and most seriously, the continual exposure to asbestos.
David Marshall, a KMB attorney representing the workers, stated the AoC has downplayed the asbestos exposure and other hazards the workers face on the job. “The Architect of the Capitol ignored these workers’ health and safety for years, and began requiring respirators only when the asbestos danger came to light last year,” said Marshall. “We need a health hazard evaluation from NIOSH because the Architect cannot be trusted to be truthful about issues of worker safety.”
GAP and other organizations are sending letters to members of Congress who have jurisdiction over the AoC, urging them to prevent that agency from blocking NIOSH’s access to the tunnels. The workers’ request has also received the support of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), whose members work at the Library of Congress, where asbestos has recently been discovered in the basement.
The Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee has held hearings on the AoC’s mistreatment of the tunnel workers, at which Senators Wayne Allard (R-Co.), then-Chairman, and then-ranking member Richard Durbin (D-Il.) expressed shock and outrage that congressional workers were being exposed to asbestos.
Background Information
The tunnel workers are individuals whose job is to maintain the plumbing systems that provide steam and chilled water to Congress, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and other federal buildings. Frustrated by the lack of response after years of raising their concerns up the chain of command, the workers wrote a letter last year to three U.S. senators and one representative appealing for help. Not long thereafter, several of the workers began attending Senate Appropriations Committee hearings and speaking to the press. Following that, AoC managers began a campaign of retaliation against the crew.
The AoC is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the United States Capitol Complex. Hazardous working conditions have existed in these tunnels for decades. In 2000, the AoC was cited for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act by the Office of Compliance, which monitors working conditions in the legislative branch.
Many of the workers have been exposed to levels of asbestos that far exceed the limits set by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration. The Office of Compliance sent a memo to the AoC in 2000 stating “(the AoC) needs to take action to prevent tunnel workers from breathing airborne asbestos.” In December 2005, Office of Compliance investigators found that little had been done to improve the dangerously dilapidated structures and eliminate the risk of airborne contaminants. The Office subsequently filed a complaint against the AoC for not implementing safety recommendations made nearly six years earlier. Some members of the tunnel crew have worked unprotected in these conditions for 20 years.
The Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) provides an administrative remedy, and ultimately a transfer to federal court, for these workers and other employees of the U.S. Congress and its associated agencies. The workers are not covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act, which applies only to executive branch employees.