A report probing work conditions in Baltimore’s Department of Public Works following the heat-related death of a worker on the job has found the department had no procedures for dealing with heat-related illness, offered inadequate facilities, vehicles and training, and confirmed complaints of a toxic work culture where employees feared retaliation for raising safety concerns.

The 15-page analysis, released Thursday, recommends, among other things, a “stop-work trigger” for especially hot days and the creation of a safety ombudsman.

Washington-based firm Conn Maciel Carey LLP was tapped in August by the administration of Mayor Brandon Scott to conduct the review into the city’s workplace safety policies following the death of Ronald Silver II, a 36-year-old sanitation worker, who succumbed to hyperthermia while working on a city trash truck. Witnesses said Silver asked for water before collapsing on the porch of a city resident Aug. 2. The heat index soared to 105 degrees that day.

DPW Director Khalil Zaied said Thursday the department “conducted a line-by-line review of the firm’s findings and is taking immediate corrective actions where feasible.” In a statement, Scott called the report “an important inflection point” in efforts to improve working conditions for the city’s frontline workers.

In a memo attached to the report, City Administrator Faith Leach said the administration endorses some of the firm’s findings and has made some progress toward improvement, including:

• Submitting a Heat Illness Prevention Plan (HIPP) to the state for implementation in summer 2025.
• Training all Bureau of Solid Waste employees and supervisors on heat safety. Additional training will begin this fall on protocols to use in case of an emergency as well as leadership-specific training for supervisors.
• Establishing an anonymous tip line for employees to alleviate fears of retaliation. Training on retaliation will be offered in January.
• Removing older trash trucks without air conditioning from service and conducting regular checks to ensure air conditioning aboard trucks is working.

Silver’s death prompted calls for reform from city legislators and union leaders who alleged that a “toxic culture” has persisted within DPW, putting the safety of employees at risk. The report substantiated concerns about workplace culture, finding:

• Some employees received no formal training on heat safety.
• Frontline supervisors “in general, take a very hands-off approach to employee wellness.”
• Instances where employees who raised safety concerns were “subjected to more onerous working conditions, assigned demeaning work tasks” or denied overtime shifts.

Patrick Moran, President of AFSCME Maryland Council 3 who represents thousands of city employees in multiple departments, including DPW, said in a statement that the report “validates what we have said since the death of Brother Silver,” including that the city does not have “basic heat and emergency protocols.”

“Days after the tragedy we made clear demands that track with just about all the recommendations from the report,” Moran said. “At what point is the city going to actually listen to its front line workers? We need leadership and we need resolution with us, across agencies, now.”

The report says Baltimore submitted its heat illness-prevention plan to Maryland Occupational Safety and Health in August. The city said after a review process, it will implement the plan summer 2025.

The plan includes high-heat procedures that will activate when the heat index reaches or exceeds 90 degrees, which includes mandatory breaks every two hours when the heat index is between 90-100 degrees, and mandatory breaks every hour when the heat index is above 100 degrees. It also includes prevention strategies, such as providing drinking water to workers.

The submitted plan does not have an extreme-heat stop-work trigger, as recommended by the law firm.

“No OSH Agency or state law requires workers to stop work at any particular heat or heat index level, but because of the extraordinary physical demands of solid waste collection, we believe at such a high heat index, the work simply cannot be done safely, regardless how much water is provided or what breaks are mandated,” the report stated.

The submitted plan calls for supervisors to conduct a heat hazard assessment if temperatures exceed 90 degrees. That assessment includes considering humidity, wind speed, and exertion of work, and allows them to shift work schedules to cooler hours of the day or adjust clothing, if needed.

Before Silver’s death, DPW had already come under fire for perilous workplace conditions via a series of reports from city Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming. The reports, issued earlier that summer, detailed broken air conditioning, inoperable water fountains and nonfunctional ice machines at several facilities, as well as damaged locker rooms and instances in which toilet paper was kept under lock and key.

At the Cherry Hill yard where Silver was based, Cumming observed employees leaving for trash routes without being given water or Gatorade for their shifts.

Scott has acknowledged that DPW’s facilities are unfit, but also highlighted the $18 million capital investment into sanitation facilities he’s made during his tenure. Addressing the culture within DPW will begin with improving facilities, he said previously.

Scott’s selection of Conn Maciel Carey to conduct the review was scrutinized by legislators, union leaders and ex-OSHA officials who said the firm has a history of opposing tougher workplace regulations, including a proposed federal rule on heat safety.

Union leadership denounced the firm as “antiunion and antihealth and safety,” likening their involvement in the investigation to the fox guarding the henhouse. Former OSHA officials said they were perplexed by the decision.

The Scott administration ignored calls to drop the firm, arguing Carey was hired for “niche technical expertise in heat illness and injury prevention.”