The National Park Service has threatened to terminate its contract with international hospitality company Aramark at Crater Lake National Park, following a rash of management issues at the Oregon destination over the past five years.

Crater Lake Hospitality, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Aramark, is contracted to run concessions at Crater Lake and the Oregon Caves National Monument through 2030. However, a park service spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that the federal agency will terminate the contract unless the company “shows cause as to why NPS should not do so,” said David Szymanski, Pacific West regional director for the agency.

Park officials did not offer a timeline for the company to respond, and did not say how a termination would affect park operations like Crater Lake Lodge and boat tours. Szymanski declined to say how Aramark was informed or exactly what was communicated, but agency guidelines require written notice.

The announcement comes just two months after Sen. Ron Wyden issued a public letter to the National Park Service, raising a litany of “serious concerns” about Crater Lake Hospitality and asking the federal agency to “take immediate action to prevent concessionaire mismanagement from continuing to threaten Crater Lake National Park, its visitors, or the employees who live and work there.”

Former employees have complained of unsanitary and unsafe housing and working conditions, payroll issues that led to withheld paychecks and allegations of sexual assault — claims backed up by annual National Park Service reviews of Aramark’s operations at Crater Lake, police reports, and complaints to the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries, all provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive through public records requests.

“Termination would be an extremely rare action, and one we don’t take lightly. But consistent failures to meet contract requirements led to our notice of intent to terminate this contract to protect visitors and park resources,” Szymanski said. “If NPS terminates the contract, NPS would organize an orderly discontinuation of Crater Lake Hospitality’s operations at the park and work to transition to a short-term contract with another operator to minimize impacts to visitors.”

A spokesperson for Aramark did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reached for comment Wednesday, a spokesperson for Wyden was not aware of the National Park Service action.

In the National Park Service’s most recent annual review for the 2023 season, park officials issued blistering critiques of Aramark’s management in several areas, calling out the company for failing to properly address several allegations of assault and harassment between employees, dragging its feet on contractually obligated improvement projects, repeatedly failing public health inspections, and allowing several park-owned buildings to fall into a state of disrepair.

More than a dozen former employees and managers of Crater Lake Hospitality confirmed those issues and added more in interviews with The Oregonian/OregonLive. Additional allegations include workplace harassment, unsafe living conditions and retaliatory firings. Many employees requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from Aramark, which manages concessions at least 10 other national parks, as well as a host of state parks, lodges, school cafeterias and prisons around the world.

Aramark signed a 10-year contract at Crater Lake in 2018, taking over from hospitality company Xanterra, which had operated there since 2002. That contract was extended to 2030 during the COVID-19 pandemic, as federal officials temporarily closed public access to the park.

According to the agency’s Commercial Services Guide, which outlines the implementation of its concessions policies, the National Park Service can suspend or terminate a contract for several reasons, including to protect park visitors from unsanitary or hazardous conditions, to protect the park itself from environmental hazards or to address a contract in default.

A concessioner can be found in default simply by receiving an overall rating of “unsatisfactory” in one annual review or ratings of “marginal” in two consecutive reviews, according to the guidelines. At Crater Lake, Aramark received an “unsatisfactory” rating for 2023 and “marginal” ratings in 2022, 2021 and 2019.