Dollar General has 48 hours to make its stores safer or it will face big fines

By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN

New York (CNN) — Dollar General will improve safety protocols in stores and pay $12 million in penalties in a sweeping settlement with the Department of Labor over the discount chain’s long history of putting low-wage employees in dangerous working conditions.

Dozens of Dollar General workers and customers have been killed at stores over the past decade, and the company has faced worker protests and millions in fines from regulators for unsafe store conditions.

The Labor Department said Dollar General agreed to hire new safety managers, provide safety and health training to workers and develop a safety and health committee. Dollar General will also reduce merchandise levels in stores to prevent blocked fire exits.

The agreement also requires Dollar General to correct any safety violations related to blocked exits or access to fire extinguishers and electrical panels within 48 hours. Dollar General could face fines up to $500,000 per violation.

“These changes help give peace of mind to thousands of workers, knowing that they are not risking their safety in their workplaces and that they will come home healthy at the end of each day,” Douglas Parker, the head of the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health division, said in a statement.

This settlement resolves existing contested inspections as well as open federal inspections involving alleged violations.

Dollar General did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Last year, the Labor Department agreed to a settlement with Dollar Tree to improve worker safety in stores.

Both chains have a low-cost business model, allowing them to keep their prices down and open in areas competitors like Walmart and Target have bypassed.

But this model often means only one or two workers making the minimum wage oversee stores at a time, making it nearly impossible for employees to stock shelves and keep stores well maintained.

Dollar General is the fastest-growing retailer in the United States, with more than 19,000 small stores. The company has boomed, typically in small towns, due to the shrinking middle class and income inequality in the United States.

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