A while back, I blogged about OSHA taking a fairly unusual step of inspecting and issuing six figure fines to retailer “Guess?”.
It was unusual because OSHA’s limited resources requires them to direct their efforts towards high hazard industries like construction and manufacturing. For many years, retailers have been relatively unscathed.
But that seems to be changing. OSHA just inspected and fined Dollar General Corp., who operates Dollar General stores, $107,000 for four repeat, and one serious safety violation.
The agency cited Dollar General for repeatedly exposing workers to hazards by blocking electrical panels, exits and fire extinguishers with merchandise and carts. The chain also failed to perform inspections of fire extinguishers. OSHA cited the company for the same violations at Brooklyn, Mississippi and West Milford, West Virginia stores in November 2014. The serious citation is related to exposing employees to electrical hazards from missing faceplates on electrical outlets.
You can see copies of the citations here.
Since November 2010, OSHA has inspected Dollar General stores 55 times and issued 155 citations. Blocked exits and electrical panels and improperly maintained fire extinguishers were among the violations found.
Headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, Dollar General is a discount retailer with more than 100,000 employees in 12,000 store locations in 43 states nationwide.