OSHA settlement forces Dollar General to overhaul store safety, pay $12 million
On July 11, 2024, OSHA reached a corporate wide settlement with Dollar General that required the retailer to implement extensive safety reforms and pay $12 million in penalties. The agreement imposes new training, staffing, auditing, and reporting obligations that directly affect store level working conditions and employee reporting channels.
On July 11, 2024, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a corporate wide settlement with Dollar General that required the company to implement broad safety improvements and to pay $12 million in penalties. The settlement set out a detailed roster of measures aimed at fixing recurring hazards in stores and at creating systems to prevent future violations.
The agreement required Dollar General to build and maintain an expanded safety structure and a robust safety and health management system, including hiring additional safety managers. It mandated reductions in in store inventory levels and improvements in stocking efficiency to prevent blocked emergency exits and unsafe storage that had been identified as recurring problems. The company must provide safety and health training for both leadership and non managerial employees, create safety and health committees with employee participation, and operate an anonymous hotline for safety concerns.
The settlement also obligates Dollar General to retain third party consultants and auditors to identify hazards and to carry out unannounced compliance audits. The company must establish a Safety Operations Center to detect store hazards, and it must meet prompt abatement timelines for covered hazards, generally within 48 hours. The agreement provides for steep monetary assessments if the company fails to correct covered hazards in a timely manner, up to one hundred thousand dollars per day and up to five hundred thousand dollars for continuing violations, in addition to other enforcement actions.
For workers, the settlement touches the practical conditions of day to day store life. Requirements around egress, access to electrical panels, fire extinguisher access, and storage practices are intended to reduce immediate physical risks for frontline employees and customers. New training obligations and employee participation on safety committees create more formal channels for raising concerns. The use of third party audits and the Safety Operations Center means stores will face ongoing monitoring and unannounced checks, which could change how managers prioritize stocking and store layout.
As of today, the reforms remain in force and the settlement continues to shape Dollar General operations and worker safety oversight across the company.
