The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced June 22 that Dollar Tree Inc. is facing $294,668 in new OSHA fines following the agency’s inspection of a Coventry, Rhode Island, store.
In response to a complaint, inspectors found store employees were exposed to slip and trip hazards created by haphazardly stacked boxes that were falling and spilling items in the store’s shopping area and wheeled carts, large boxes, bins, and trash spread throughout the store’s stockroom. Agency inspectors also discovered boxes of merchandise stacked unsafely in the stockroom, exposing employees to collapse and struck-by hazards.
OSHA has cited Dollar Tree for similar hazards at stores in Providence, Rhode Island, and in Idaho, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Texas.
“We have cited Rhode Island Dollar Tree locations before for unsafely stored stock and materials, so they are well aware of these hazards and how to fix them,” Robert Sestito, OSHA’s Providence area director, said in an agency statement. “It’s time they put worker safety over profits.”
Dollar Tree Inc. operates Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores. OSHA inspectors have identified more than 300 violations since 2017 in more than 500 inspections of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores. The agency has also cited Dollar Tree’s competitor, Dollar General, for similar violations—blocked doors, electrical panels, and exit routes, as well as unsafely stacked boxes.
Additionally, the agency cited Target Corporation stores for blocked exits. In 2020, the company reached a settlement agreement with the agency to resolve a series of cases before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission involving stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
Piedmont Airlines cited following worker fatality
On June 21, OSHA announced it cited Piedmont Airlines after a 34-year-old customer service agent was pulled into the spinning turbines of a jet engine in December 2022 at Montgomery Regional Airport in Montgomery, Alabama, resulting in her fatal injury.
In the agency’s investigation of the New Year’s Eve fatality, OSHA determined that as the wing walker on a ground crew placed cones around an Embraer E75 passenger plane, suction near one of the plane’s engines pulled her inward.
OSHA issued Piedmont Airlines a citation for one serious violation under the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s General Duty Clause (§5(a)(1)) for exposing ground crew workers to ingestion hazards while performing aircraft marshalling, wing-walking, and baggage-handling tasks. The airline faces $15,625 in proposed penalties—an amount set by federal statute.
“Proper training and enforcement of safety procedures could have prevented this tragedy,” Jose A. Gonzalez, OSHA’s Mobile, Alabama, area director, said in an agency statement. “This incident is a tragic reminder that safety measures must be in place even for a routine assignment.”
OSHA says the employer has contested the agency’s citation before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, which decides contests of OSHA citations or penalties. Salisbury, Maryland-based Piedmont Airlines Inc. is a subsidiary of Dallas-based American Airlines, according to OSHA. Piedmont has about 10,000 employees, who provide ground and gate operation services at airports throughout the United States.