Blocked Exits and Other Repeat Safety Violations at a Dollar General Store Leads to a $113K Fine

/ Dollar General Store/

OSHA inspected a Dollar General store in Pennsylvania for one serious incident and three repeat violations, and proposes a fine of $113,300.  The compliant alleged hazards due to bolted and blocked exits and blocked aisles.  The company was also cited for failure to have a fire extinguisher readily available.  Dollar General stores have been cited more than 40 times and inspected by OSHA more than 70 times since 2009, usually because of blocked exits, electrical panels, as well as improperly maintained fire extinguishers.  "It only takes one emergency for workers to get hurt or killed because of the company's deficient safety practices", says OSHA's area director of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

 

/ Dollar General Store/ / Comment

Cynthia Chiles

Cynthia Chiles is President and founder of convergence consulting LLC, and she is located in the Los Angeles, California office. Cynthia developed the innovative business model on which the company is founded and named. She has 25 years of environmental, health, safety, and social responsibility (EHS), management consulting experience to multi-national clients. She has an expertise in the development and management of global EHS management programs, in particular compliance audit programs, management system implementation programs and performance enhancement programs. She has conducted hundreds of EHS audits in over 17 countries, and currently manages many large scale multi-country audit and consulting support projects for our clients in the pharmaceutical, electronics and retail sectors. Cynthia recently served a four term on the Auditing Roundtable Board of Directors and currently sits on the Standards Board for the Board of Environmental Health and Safety Auditor Certification (BEAC). She holds a Bachelor of Science in both Political Science and Business Management, and is a BEAC certified environmental auditor.