OSHA proposes $330,000 in fines for Family Dollar following an Orlando worker’s death
An Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation after the death of a Family Dollar employee in Central Florida turned into $330,446 in proposed fines and an excoriation of the chain by OSHA’s regional director.
The workplace safety violation involving a locked emergency exit for which there was only one key was classified as “Willful-Serious.” OSHA defines a Willful violation as “a violation in which the employer either knowingly failed to comply with a legal requirement (purposeful disregard) or acted with plain indifference to employee safety.”
Two other violations were classified as Repeat-Serious because Family Dollar has been fined for these infractions before.
OSHA Area Director Sarah Carle said, “Family Dollar has shown time and again that their priority is profits, not their employees. Our inspection revealed multiple unsafe conditions that management should have addressed, including locked doors and blocked exits.
“Tragically, someone lost their life as a result of an altercation. Incidents such as this can be averted when workers are trained on a violence prevention program that empowers them to recognize and avoid risks on the job.”
An email sent to Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, has not been answered.
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What brought OSHA to the Family Dollar at 918 W. Colonial Dr. in Orlando, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, was a shoplifting incident around 4 p.m. on Dec. 11.
“An employee was trying to stop the shoplifter from walking out of the store with the stolen goods. There was a struggle to keep the shoplifter from running out,” OSHA said. “Immediately after the shoplifter ran from the store without the goods, the employee was feeling short of breath and began vomiting. The assistant manager called 911, and the employee later died at the hospital due to cardiac arrest.”
OSHA said Family Dollar didn’t alert OSHA to the worker’s death until Dec. 15. That’s the least of the citations in OSHA’s Citation and Notification of Penalty.
▪ Family Dollar didn’t notify OSHA within eight hours of a workplace-related death. This violation, classified as Other-Than-Serious, was worth a proposed fine of $11,396.
▪ OSHA inspectors saw on Dec. 17 “employees were exposed to slip, trip, and struck-by hazards while working in the main storage/receiving room...there was no aisle or path for walking and employees were required to create an aisle as they went when retrieving merchandise and U-boats.”
As Family Dollar stores in the New Jersey cities of Paterson and Clifton had been cited for this previously, it was classified as a Repeat-Serious violation and the proposed fine was $91,157.
▪ OSHA inspectors felt that carts and merchandise boxes blocking aisle Nos. 4 and 10 counted as exit route obstructions, for which stores in Paterson, New Jersey, and East Point, Georgia, had been previously cited. So, this was also classified as a Repeat-Serious violation with a $91,157 proposed fine.
“Employee(s) were not able to open an exit route door from the inside at all times without keys, tools, or special knowledge.” That’s the description of the violation involving the stock room emergency room door that is kept locked “and can only be opened with a single key held by management.”
This was classified a Willful-Serious violation. The proposed fine is $136,736.
