Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regional offices in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania cited Dollar Tree stores with willful and repeat violations for exits, storage, other hazards at two stores.
Fer Gregory / Shutterstock.com
Inspectors in OSHA’s Region 1 cited Dollar Tree Stores Inc. for exit, storage, and fire hazards at a store in Boston, Massachusetts and are seeking $523,745 in penalties. Region 3 officials cited Dollar Tree Stores for exit and storage hazards at a store located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and are seeking $296,861 in penalties.
Region 1 inspectors found store employees exposed to fire hazards from obstructed exit routes, struck-by hazards caused by unstable stacks of merchandise and over-stocked materials, and electrical hazards from blocked working spaces around electrical panels. OSHA’s Boston South Area Office cited Dollar Tree for two willful and three repeat violations.
The agency has cited Dollar Tree multiple times for similar hazards at stores throughout the country.
“OSHA will continue to ensure that Dollar Tree is held accountable for their obligations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Loren Sweatt said in an agency statement.
Last year, Region 1 officials issued citations for violations at Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Region 1 inspectors cited Dollar Tree for two willful violations of the exit route and materials handling standards. They found a rolling conveyor placed in front of a stock room exit door in the Boston store, as well as boxes of merchandise in an entryway into the stock room, impeding access to exit doors; a path from the walk-in cooler and employee break room to the stock room exit doors blocked; and path from a cardboard baler to the stock rook exit doors blocked.
Inspectors found boxes stacked above head level in three locations in the store. The stacks were not secured from sliding or collapse, exposing store employees to struck-by hazards.
Dollar Tree was cited for a repeat violation of the housekeeping standard for allowing trash to accumulate, as well as a repeat violation of the materials handing standard for the fire hazards presented by boxes stored in excess. Finally, Region 1 inspectors cited Dollar Tree for a repeat electrical safety violation because boxes and stock carts blocked access to an electrical panel closet.
Region 3 inspectors found blocked emergency exits in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, store, as well as, unsecured compressed gas cylinders, unsanitary bathrooms, electrical panels not properly maintained, and materials stacked unsafely.
OSHA cited Dollar Tree for two willful, one repeat and two other-than-serious violations at the Bethlehem store.
Region 3 inspectors cited Dollar Tree for willful violations of the exit routes and materials handling standards for boxes blocking exits and boxes stacked in an unstable manner. The agency cited the employer with a repeat violation of the compressed gases standard for unsecured helium canisters. The agency cited Dollar Tree for similar violations at its Warrenburg, Missouri and Titusville, Florida, stores.
OSHA cited Dollar Tree with other-than-serious violations of electrical safety and sanitation standards for hazards found at the Bethlehem store. The floors and toilet in the employee bathroom were unsanitary, according to the agency.