Wal-Mart Incurs ‘Black Friday’ OSHA Citation
Wal-Mart, which recently avoided facing any potential criminal charges stemming from the death of a 34-year-old employee killed during a
Black Friday stampede at a store in the Long Island area of New York state in 2008,
received a citation from
OSHA (Occupation Safety and Health Administration) regarding the incident.
OSHA cited Wal-Mart for inadequate crowd management. An OSHA inspection found employees were exposed to being crushed by the crowd due to the store's failure to implement reasonable and effective crowd management principles. OSHA said this failure included providing employees with the necessary training and tools to safely manage the large crowd of shoppers.
As a result, OSHA has issued Wal-Mart one serious citation under its general duty clause for exposing workers to the recognized hazard of being crushed by the crowd. The citation carries a proposed fine of $7,000, the maximum penalty amount for a serious violation allowed under the law. OSHA issues serious citations when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from hazards about which the employer knew or should have known.
Wal-Mart has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, participate in an informal conference with the OSHA area director, or contest the citations before the independent
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Wal-Mart Avoids Criminal Charges
According to the Los Angeles Times, Wal-Mart will pay a total of almost $2 million in
an agreement with the Nassau County District Attorney’s office. Wal-Mart’s payments will include $400,000 to set up a victim’s compensation fund and a $1.5 million donation to various Nassau County social services and non-profit programs. The retailer also agreed to improve crowd management on the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest retail shopping day of the year and commonly known as “Black Friday” because it marks when many retailers move from the red to the black in their financial accounting. Had Wal-Mart been convicted on criminal charges relating to the death, it would have been fined a maximum of $10,000.
Wal-Mart Still Faces Civil Lawsuit
The relatives of a 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee, killed during the stampede are still
filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the big-box retailer. Defendants include Wal-Mart, the Green Acres Mall, and the security company hired to patrol the property, and additional suits will likely be filed against Nassau County and the police department,
writes MarketingVox.
Jdimytai Damour died of asphyxiation when Wal-Mart's
Black Friday shoppers rushed the doors. Because he was 6-foot-five and about 270 pounds, police said, he was likely situated at the store entrance to mitigate the frenzy.
Wal-Mart "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent," according to the complaint, which also claims that Wal-Mart's deep discounts sparked "an atmosphere of competition and anxiety" leading to "crowd craze."
Wal-Mart is also accused of failing to take adequate security measures to control the morning rush, which numbered in the low thousands.
"Those hundreds of people who did make their way into the store, literally had to step over or around him or unfortunately on him to get into the Wal-Mart store," Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey
told the Associated Press.
Mulvey also said it was clear the store lacked sufficient security to deal with a crowd that size, even though police met with retailers weeks before Thanksgiving to discuss security and crowd-control measures for Black Friday.
President Hank Mullany of Wal-Mart's Northeast Division called Damour "part of the Wal-Mart family," adding, "We have been in communication with members of his family to do what we can to help them through this difficult time. Our associates know that when incidents like this occur, we take care of our own."
Damour, hired by a temp agency, had been working at Wal-Mart for about one week.
