Dollar General Corp. exposes employees to workplace safety and health hazards at stores in Boone and Harrison counties

Employer name: Dollar General Corp., headquartered at 100 Mission Ridge, Goodlettsville, Tennessee. The two inspected stores are located at 421 Main Street in Madison, West Virginia, and 790 Main Street in West Milford, West Virginia.

Citations issued: On September 21, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued both stores citations for two repeat violations.

Investigation findings: OSHA initiated the inspections in response to complaints alleging hazards due to blocked aisles and exits. Both stores were cited for obstructed emergency exit doors that prohibited immediate access from the area and posed a fall and trip hazard in the case of an in-store emergency. Dollar General Corp. was also cited because electrical breaker boxes were blocked by shelving and boxes of materials, making it unsafe for employees to control lights, coolers and air conditioners.

Dollar General stores have been cited more than 40 times and inspected by OSHA more than 70 times since 2009, usually because of blocked exits and electrical panels, as well as improperly maintained fire extinguishers.

Proposed penalties: $169,000

Madison store: $103,000

West Milford store: $66,000

Quote: "Dollar General's negligence in protecting employees from these hazards despite the number of times they have been brought to the company's attention is alarming," said Prentice Cline, OSHA's area director in Charleston. "It only takes one fire emergency for workers to get hurt or killed because of the company's faulty safety practices. These hazards need to be eliminated immediately to prevent a tragic incident from occurring."

View the citations:

• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/DollarGeneral_1048760_921_15.pdf
• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/DollarGeneral_1059564_0921_15.pdf

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint; or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Charleston Area Office at 304-347-5937.