Dollar General shareholders mull worker-safety measures

• Shareholders asked the board for Dollar General to commission an independent, third-party audit that would examine policies and practices and how it affects worker safety during the company’s annual meeting.
• Dollar General is facing pressure from regulators, activists and employees to improve working conditions.
• The company is currently facing more than $21 million in fines from OSHA for safety hazards.
• Dollar General employs more than 170,000 full- and part-time employees across more than 19,000 stores in 47 states and Mexico as of March.
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OSHA proposes fines for Ohio, resin manufacturing facility

• OSHA proposed $171,884 in penalties for alleged violations to resin manufacturer Durez Corp. in Kenton, Ohio.
• The agency determined that the facility failed to prevent resin accumulations from exposing control room workers to respiratory and fire hazards.
• The violations included a failure to ensure the HVAC system effectively maintained a positive pressure on the control room and automatically shut off in the event of a formaldehyde release
• There was also an absence of an effective housekeeping program to minimize the number of combustible resins on surfaces throughout the facility.
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Legislation for meatpacking and warehouse industries in Minnesota

• Minnesota Tim Walz signed a bill that amends the Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights, creates new meatpacking workplace safety requirements with the Safe Workplaces for Meat and Poultry Processing Workers Act, and limits the use of quotas in the “Warehouse Distribution Worker Safety” law.
• The Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights amendments require packinghouse employers to provide notice of workers’ compensation rights.
• The measure creates a right to a civil cause of action for employees who do not receive that notice, or the pre-existing notice regarding pay, benefits, safety, labor, and leave rights.
• The Safe Workplaces for Meat and Poultry Processing Workers Act also creates new workplace safety obligations for meatpacking employers, such as new task and annual training requirements, and safety rules for future public health emergencies.
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Washington State levies largest worker safety fines

• Three confidential complaints from an employee of a King County business have resulted in 175 safety and health violations and a $2 million fine from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.
• L&I conducted inspections in Nov. and Dec. 2022 at Young Corporation’s Seattle headquarters, where they make excavator equipment, and two other divisions of the company: Nordick Manufacturing and the Meltec Foundry division.
• Across the three locations, L&I found 31 willful serious, seven willful general, 94 serious, and more than 40 general violations.
• The total fine, $2,013,120, is among the largest in L&I history.
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