Laundry Worker

Summary

The Laundry Worker position is in Environmental Management Service (EMS) services at the VA Bedford Healthcare System, located at the Bedford location. This position is full-time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

• The purpose of this position is to provide on-site laundry washing services for items such as inpatient personal laundry, employee VA-issued clothing, cubicle curtains and specialty items such as safe patient handling devices. The position performs laundry duties and collects and transports textiles to various facility locations. This position also supports the sanitation, and logistics/warehouse product lines. Evaluates the workplace environment, equipment, or practices to ensure compliance with safety standards and government regulations. Follows instructions and uses protective procedures when handling chemicals. Assists with orders for laundry products and textiles. Performs textile processing tasks during slack periods or periods of leave by other employees. Ensures laundry items are returned to correct areas. Loads machines to obtain maximum utilization and to prevent over processing of or damage to garments. Assists in maintaining accurate records of all laundry received and processed. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday; 6:00am-2:30pm Position Description Title/PD#: Laundry Worker/PD03349A Physical Requirements/Working Conditions: Laundry workers need strength and stamina for doing heavy physical tasks for long periods. Incumbent must be able to pull wet textiles from washer and place into dryer/extractor without damaging them. The incumbent must be able to push heavy carts weighing up to 500 pounds. Must be able to lift heavy bundles of linens weighing over 50 pounds. Incumbent is required to stand for long periods. Incumbent must be able to kneel, stoop and bend. Must be able to use both hands and be able to work with hands in water and wet materials. Constant movement of arms when sorting is to be expected. May occasionally lift heavier objects with assistance and/or mechanical devices as appropriate for safety. Laundries are very noisy and usually hot and humid. Workers are constantly exposed to the possibility of bruises from moving carts or falls on wet floors in the washing area. They stand and walk continuously on concrete floors. Incumbent works indoors in areas that normally have adequate heat, light and ventilation. The employee may be exposed to drafts from open doors. Work area is noisy year-round. Incumbent may be exposed to contagious diseases and wears protective clothing when handling soiled linens and garments. Incumbent may be exposed to inclement weather when retrieving or delivering textiles between facility and textile processing area. Incumbent may be exposed to disagreeable odors such as feces, vomit, blood, etc., as well as predatory pests such as bed bugs and lice. In addition, incumbent will be exposed to some caustic and toxic laundry chemicals and must follow appropriate protective procedures. Notifications: This position is covered by a special rate.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. EXPERIENCE: A specific length of training and experience is not required, but you must show evidence of training or experience of sufficient scope and quality of your ability to do the work of this position. Evidence which demonstrates you possess the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform the duties of this position must be supported by detailed descriptions of such on your resume. Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualification Standards. SCREEN-OUT ELEMENT: Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element, which usually appears as question 1 in the on-line questionnaire. Those applicants who appear to possess at least the minimal acceptable qualification requirement are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated. The potential eligibles are then rated against the remainder of the Job Elements: Dexterity and Safety Interpret Instructions, Specifications (other than blueprint reading) Materials Operation of Equipment/Machinery Technical Practices Without more than normal supervision Work Practices Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Requirements

U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. Suitable for Federal employment, determined by a background investigation Selective Services Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

How to apply

All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the occupational questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on 09/14/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13053183. 1. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. 2. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. You may check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USA Jobs account and clicking on Applications. Information regarding your application status can be found in the USAJobs Help Center. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. If initial application submission is updated and resubmitted with a new resume, only the most current resume will be reviewed for consideration. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.