Dollar General Corp. faces $321,827 in proposed penalties after a recent Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation of a Mobile, Alabama, store found the nation’s largest discount retailer continues to put workers at risk, citing three repeat violations at this location.
Since 2016, OSHA has proposed more than $3.3 million in penalties in 54 inspections at Dollar General locations nationwide. Common violations include blocked electrical panels, obstructed exits, forklift, housekeeping and sanitation violations, all of which put workers at risk of injury, OSHA says.
The June 2021 federal inspection of the Mobile store found the store’s operator and a repeat OSHA offender, Dolgencorp LLC, for the third time failed to secure safe working conditions by failing to keep the main storeroom orderly to allow safe exit during an emergency, exposure to slip and trip hazards and being struck by falling boxes, and prevented access to electrical panels.
A federal appeals court has affirmed a jury verdict of more than $277,000 to a former diabetic Dollar General worker, who was fired for drinking orange juice to forestall low blood sugar attacks, in a case filed on her behalf by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.