OSHA Investigations Reveal Workplace Hazards at Discount Retailer

Several Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety and health inspections at four separate Dollar General stores revealed the retailer’s long history of exposing employees to several workplace hazards. All in all, OSHA has investigated Dollar General 55 times across numerous locations nationwide since 2016. The investigations are a part of OSHA’s continued efforts to ensure safe and healthful workplaces for employees. To that end, OSHA also urged health care employers on February 18, to implement health and safety programs.

Workplace Hazards at Dollar General

Overall, OSHA’s investigations of Dollar General over the last 6 years have revealed several workplace hazards. What’s more, OSHA inspectors characterized these violations as repeated and willful. Repeated violations during this time have included hazards associated with:

• obstructed exit routes,
• material storage, and
• blocked workspace around electrical panels.

Moreover, recent inspections in August 2021, focused on three stores in Mobile, Alabama, and one store in Dalton, Georgia, and found several additional workplace hazards. Across all of the locations OSHA inspectors discovered:

• a failure to keep receiving areas clean and orderly,
• materials stacked in an unsafe manner,
• slip and trip hazards, and
• hazards in which workers could be struck by objects.

Meanwhile, the employer again failed to keep exit routes and workspaces around electrical panels clear. In effect this exposed workers to fire hazards in the workplace.

A History of Workplace Safety Violations

According to OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer in Atlanta, “Dollar General’s long and extensive history of workplace safety violations and repeated failures to protect its workers shows willful recklessness.” In fact, since 2016, OSHA has proposed more than $3.6 million in penalties across 55 inspections at Dollar General. Additionally, recent investigations resulted in penalties of more than $1 million:

• $683,680 in penalties on three Mobile, Alabama locations
• $364,629 in penalties on the location in Dalton, Georgia

In closing, Petermeyer stated that OSHA, “will make every effort to hold them accountable for their failures.” In conclusion, OSHA has given Dollar General 15 business days from the issuance of the citations and penalties to respond. Dollar General must either comply by that time, request to speak with OSHA’s area director, or dispute the findings before an independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.