A sign hangs above a Dollar General store on August 31, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.
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The U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday an agreement with General dollarrequiring the retailer and its subsidiaries to pay $12 million in fines and implement significant workplace safety improvements at its more than 19,000 stores nationwide.
The new round of fines adds to the more than $21 million in federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fines the discount chain has racked up since 2017 due to blocked fire exits, dangerous levels of clutter and other safety complaints. Gun violence has also been a problem for Dollar General stores: 49 people have been killed and 172 injured at Dollar General stores due to gun violence, according to 2023 data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
Dollar General, a repeat violator of the Department of Labor, became the first company to be added to OSHA's list of “serious violators” of workplace safety standards in 2023, after the agency expanded the scope of its safety enforcement program.
“This agreement commits Dollar General to making worker safety a priority by implementing meaningful, systematic changes to its operations to improve accountability and compliance, and provides Dollar General employees with essential information to ensure their own health and safety,” Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas Parker said in a news release.
Under the new agreement, the Tennessee-based retailer must hire more safety managers, significantly reduce its inventory and increase storage efficiency to prevent blocked exits and clutter. It must also provide safety and health training to all employees and develop a safety and health committee with employee input.
Dollar General has hired outside consultants and auditors to identify hazards and conduct unannounced annual compliance audits, created a new Safety Operations Center and maintained an anonymous hotline for employees and the public to report safety concerns.
The external auditors were first hired in response to a shareholder vote in May 2023 calling for one, a move the company opposed at the time.
The agreement with the Department of Labor also requires Dollar General to monitor the results of those efforts and provide quarterly reports to OSHA.
Under the settlement, Dollar General must correct safety hazards, such as blocked access to fire extinguishers and electrical panels and improper storage of supplies in its stores, within 48 hours and provide proof of the correction. The discount chain will be subject to additional fines of $100,000 per day up to $500,000 if it fails to do so.
CNBC has reached out to Dollar General for additional comment.
