Dollar General to Pay $12 Million for Safety Violations

Goodlettsville, TN (WorkersCompensation.com) – Dollar General agreed to pay a $12 million fine and improve conditions at its retail stores across the country, officials with the U.S. Labor Department said last month.

According to a release from the department, the discount retail chain settled with the federal government over practices the Labor Department said put its employees in danger. In addition to the fine, Dollar General agreed to significantly reduce its store inventory and hire new safety managers, provide health and safety training and develop safety and health committees for employees.

The agreement also provides direction for Dollar General on how to correct future safety violations. If the company fails to correct future safety violations, such as blocked exits or access to fire extinguishers and electrical panels, within 48 hours, the company will face fines of up to $500,000 per violation.

“This agreement commits Dollar General to making worker safety a priority by implementing significant and systematic changes in its operations to improve accountability and compliance, and it gives Dollar General employees essential input on ensuring their own health and safety,” Douglas Parker, assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, said. “These changes help give peace of mind to thousands of workers, knowing that they are not risking their safety in their workplaces and that they will come home healthy at the end of each day.”

Since 2017, Dollar General has faced increased scrutiny on its operations, which resulted in millions of dollars in penalties. In January 2023, OSHA inspectors put the company on a repeat offenders list for “numerous willful, repeat and serious workplace safety violations.” OSHA inspectors discovered the company continuously exposed its workers to “unsafe conditions” and levied more than $21 million in penalties against the company.

In July 2023, OSHA inspectors found that the company continued to expose employees at an Austin store to blocked exits and fire extinguishers not maintained or mounted as required. OSHA charged the store with two serious and two repeat violations, and proposed penalties of $298,685.

Dollar General said in a statement that it was pleased to have reached an agreement with OSHA to resolve the issues and to improve the safety in its stores.

The chain has also been subject to robberies and attacks on employees recently.

In Laurel, Miss., a new employee at a Dollar General was attacked by a customer just three weeks after starting the job. Michelle Renee Abney was attacked on July 16 when a customer asked her for ice from the ice machine. Abney said she asked a manager to unlock the ice machine, because she had not been trained on which key to use. However, when she couldn’t open up the ice machine, the customer, Desmond Pollard, grew frustrated.

Pollard verbally assaulted Abney. Despite her attempts to de-escalate the situation, Pollard became physical, pushing and punching her, then knocking her to the ground and kicking her with his boots.

Abney said that her managers did not intervene. She said several employees and managers watched as she was assaulted, saying that the attacker’s reputation in the community prevented them from acting.

Abney later quit her job and reported the attack to the Laurel Police Department. Police said the incident was being investigated. Abney’s injuries included scrapes and swelling, and classified the incident as a misdemeanor assault.

This past week, a man was sentenced to more than 25 years in prison after being convicted of shooting a Dollar General employee during a robbery in October 2021.

Malik Motley, 25, was sentenced to 303 months (25.25 years) in prison after pleading guilty in October 2023 to one count of Hobbs Act robbery and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He will also have to serve five years of probation when released. There is no parole in the federal system.

Kevin Ritz, United State Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said Malik Motley, 25, was sentenced to 303 months in prison after pleading guilty to the robbery. He will also serve five years’ probation when released.

According to Ritz, Motley entered a Memphis-area Dollar General store with a black mask covering his face. Instead of paying his items, Motley pulled a handgun from his pants and demanded money from the register. When the cashier was unable to open the cash register, Motley shot her in the face at point-blank range, grabbed hit items and left the store.

And in Euclid, Ohio, four shoplifting suspects were accused of threatening to stab a Dollar General employee.

According to Euclid police, on July 27, a “chuckling foursome” entered the store and gathered items into shopping baskets and walked out of the store without paying.

“They had smirks on their faces while threatening to stab employees if they didn’t let them leave,” EPD said in a report.

Police said the suspects drove off in a white car with a temporary tag. Calling them “ridiculous raiders,” the police asked people in the community to be on the lookout.

“These individuals won’t think it’s so funny when they get identified by social media,” the EPD posted on Facebook, “because it’s not humorous to the rest of us who pay for our merchandise.”

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