CBS News
Dollar General to pay $12 million for alleged violations including blocking exits
Dollar General will pay $12 million and improve safety at its 20,000 stores nationwide to settle claims it put workers in danger with practices including blocking emergency exits, the Department of Labor said.
The discount retailer will have to significantly scale back its inventory and improve stocking to prevent unsafe storage that hinders exits and makes electrical panels and fire extinguishers inaccessible, the federal agency announced last last week.
“This agreement commits Dollar General to making worker safety a priority by implementing significant and systematic changes in its operations,” Douglas Parker, assistant secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, stated. “These changes help give peace of mind to thousands of workers.”
Dollar General faces fines of up to $100,000 a day, up to $500,000, if such problems are found in the future and not fixed within 48 hours, the settlement stated.
The accord includes all of Dollar General’s 20,000 stores in the United States other than its pOpshelf locations, the Labor Department said.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with OSHA to resolve these matters. We remain committed to ensuring a safe working environment for our employees and a pleasant shopping experience for our customers,” a spokesperson for Dollar General said in an email.
Based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, Dollar General operates the country’s biggest chain of dollar stores and employs more than 170,000 people.
The $12 million fine is not the first for the company, which since 2017 has been handed more than $15 million in penalties. Last year, Dollar General became the first employers to be listed by OSHA as a “severe violator” for repeatedly violating workplace regulations.
The chain’s stores have also been backdrops for robberies and gun violence.
Nearly 50 people have died and 172 injured in Dollar General stores between 2014 and 2023, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archives. In September, Dollar General said it was donating $2.5 million after a shooting killed three people at one of its stores in Jacksonville, Florida, including a 19-year-old employee.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
In the heart of downtown Clemson, South Carolina, the Shepherd Hotel is a community hub buzzing with locals and visitors. Like most hotels, the staff is what makes the difference. But here, the staff also makes it unique.
Around 30% of the staff have an intellectual disability. Workers make between $13 and $18 per hour including tips — far above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Nationwide, 16% of people with an intellectually disability are employed, according to a ThinkWork survey.
The Shepherd’s owner, Rick Hayduk, brought his vision of employing intellectually disabled people to life in part because two of his four children have Down syndrome.
“If we do our job right, someone leaves here inspired,” Hayduk said.
The hotel partnered with a program at nearby Clemson University called ClemsonLIFE. Students, including Hayduk’s daughter Jamison, not only take college courses, they also learn skills to help them live and work independently.
The program’s participants learn everything from time management and hygiene to banking and budgeting, according to program director Erica Walters. Nearly all of the graduates who have been through the program are employed. Plans are underway to open two similar hotels in South Carolina next year.
“We want to grow for the sake of inspiration and change,” Hayduk said.
The program is changing lives.
Alex Eveland, a recent graduate from ClemsonLIFE, is now employed as a server at the Shepherd Hotel. Eveland has Down syndrome, and as a child, doctors thought he would never walk or talk. Now he is working toward a hospitality certification and has dreams of opening his own restaurant one day.
“I have no time to have a bad day in life, because I want to tell people, people could do anything in life,” Eveland said.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
