Discount retailer Dollar General must pay $321,419 in fines for repeated workplace safety violations at the chain’s store in Enfield, about 40 miles north of Bangor, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Tuesday.
An investigation in November found the store had broken five safety standards under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, with four of the five violations categorized as “serious.”
Since 2017, Tennessee-based Dollar General Corp. has been penalized millions of dollars for continuing OSHA violations at stores in Maine and nationwide, officials said.
“Dollar General continues to expose its employees to unsafe conditions at its stores across the nation,” said Doug Parker, assistant secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in a statement.
Attempts to reach Dollar General and the Enfield store operator, DG Retail LLC, with questions about the penalty were not immediately successful.
OSHA conducted nine inspections across the country in late 2022, according to the statement. Fines for the Enfield store’s operations are among $3.4 million in proposed penalties that the Labor Department issued this month.
The November investigation, initiated because of a complaint, found that the store had not kept aisles clean, blocked exits with rolling containers and boxes of products, stacked boxes up to 6 feet high in front of an electrical panel, and stored fire extinguishers where they were inaccessible. Inspectors also found the store had not conducted regular visual inspections of its portable fire extinguishers during 2022, as required by OSHA.
The violations created tripping hazards and greater risks of employee injury in the event of a fire or electrical danger, the Labor Department said.
The $321,419 fine adds to the $639,483 that Dollar General Corp. was fined from 2017 through March 2023 for operations at its Maine stores, according to the Maine Monitor. Violations of OSHA standards were issued at stores in Auburn, Augusta, Bucksport, Fort Kent, Glenburn, Limington and Sullivan.
Nationwide, OSHA has fined Dollar General Corp. and its various subsidiaries a total of $21 million since 2017, according to the statement.
“As one of the nation’s largest retailers, the company must focus its attention on resolving these issues and making corporate-wide changes to protect the safety and well-being of the people they employ,” Parker said.
Dollar General Corp. in March reported 2022 revenue of $37.8 billion, up 10.6% or $3.6 billion from the 2021 total.
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