With holiday shopping nearing its peak, federal workplace safety inspectors have again found Dollar Tree Stores Inc. – one of the nation’s largest discount retailers – exposing workers in Matteson, Illinois to the risks of unsafely stored and stacked boxes of merchandise and blocked electrical panels. 

In the past five months, OSHA has issued more than $800,000 in fines to Dollar Tree Stores for the same or similar violations, and has issued 234 safety violations against the company. What has repeatedly brought the national discount chain to the agency’s attention?

Repeated visits by OSHA inspectors to a Massachusetts Dollar Tree store found blocked exits and other hazardous conditions in the store’s stockroom – and OSHA says similar hazards have been found at other Dollar Tree stores in the U.S.