OSHA guidance highlights retail violence risks, late-night worker safety

What OSHA is really asking stores to do

OSHA’s workplace violence guidance is not just a compliance checklist. It is a practical framework for keeping a shift from tipping into a crisis, and the three parts that matter most are risk assessment, staff training, and incident reporting. OSHA defines workplace violence broadly, covering not only physical assaults but also threats, harassment, intimidation, and other disruptive behavior, which is exactly why stores need a system that catches trouble before it turns physical.

That matters in retail because the danger is often built into the job. Employees spend the day dealing with strangers, handling complaints, and managing late-day pressure when customers are tired, frustrated, or in a hurry. OSHA’s materials say a well-written and implemented prevention program, combined with engineering controls, administrative controls, and training, can reduce the potential for workplace violence. In plain terms: the store has to be designed, staffed, and coached so workers are not left improvising when a situation starts to go bad.

Why Big Lots should care now

Big Lots is not operating in a vacuum. The company reported 1,392 stores in 48 states as of May 4, 2024, then filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions on September 9, 2024, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. By then, it had already started closing about 295 stores since July 2024, and later updated its store-closing list to 344 locations across 41 states.

That kind of restructuring pressure changes the atmosphere on the sales floor. Fewer staffers, shifting traffic, uncertain hours, and customers reacting to closures can all make tense conversations more common. In a chain of this size, even a small rise in volatility can affect a lot of workers, which is why the most useful safety advice is not abstract policy language but a way to manage the realities associates face at the register, in the aisle, and near the door.

Start with risk assessment, not instinct

OSHA’s prevention-program guidance begins with evaluating and controlling risks, and that is the right place to begin at store level. A risk assessment should look at where employees are most exposed, including customer service counters, closing time, entrance and exit areas, and any spots where one worker ends up isolated. OSHA’s late-night retail guidance, first published in 1998 and built on the agency’s 1989 voluntary safety and health program management guidelines, was written for exactly those conditions.

The point is not to create paperwork for its own sake. The point is to map the situations where people are most likely to get cornered, threatened, or forced to negotiate alone. If a store knows which shifts, which entrances, which complaints, or which service tasks tend to trigger escalation, managers can change staffing, sight lines, and procedures before the next incident.

Training has to teach judgment, not just policy

CISA’s de-escalation framework adds a useful modern layer to OSHA’s approach. Workers should be trained to recognize suspicious behavior, assess the situation, de-escalate when it is safe to do so, and report to 9-1-1 or an internal channel when needed. That sequence matters because it separates normal customer friction from behavior that signals a real safety issue.

For Big Lots associates, training should answer the questions that matter in the moment: when to step back, when to get a supervisor, and when the situation has crossed from a service problem into a threat. A cashier or floor associate should not have to guess whether a loud complaint is just bad manners or the beginning of something worse. OSHA’s materials make clear that prevention works best before an incident, so training should build early exits, clear handoffs, and fast escalation paths into the work itself.

A good training program should also reflect how retail actually works:

• keep sight lines clear so employees can see trouble developing

• make sure workers know exactly who to call and how quickly

• practice what to do when a customer becomes threatening

• teach staff not to improvise when someone seems volatile

That kind of rehearsal can make the difference between a rough interaction and a scene that pulls in police, injuries, or an unsafe closing.

Incident reporting is how safety becomes actionable

Incident reporting is often treated as a formality, but it is the piece that turns isolated events into a pattern a manager can act on. OSHA’s guidance says employers who have experienced acts of workplace violence, or become aware of threats, intimidation, or other indicators of potential violence, are on notice of the risk and should implement a workplace violence prevention program. Reporting is how that notice gets documented, and documentation is what justifies changes in staffing, layout, or procedures.

That matters especially in retail, where intimidation can be normalized until something serious happens. A strong reporting process should capture threats, repeated harassment, disruptive behavior, and near-misses, not just incidents that end with a call to police. If workers can report quickly and without friction, managers can spot repeat customers, recurring time windows, or specific departments where tension keeps surfacing.

Late-night retail still carries old risks

OSHA’s late-night retail recommendations were designed for a type of job many store workers know well: small crews, cash handling, low-traffic hours, and customers coming and going after dark. Those are the conditions that can increase exposure to robbery, assault, or threatening behavior, especially when employees are alone or stretched thin. OSHA says the recommendations are advisory and informational, but they remain useful because they focus on management commitment, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and control, post-incident response, training, and recordkeeping.

That older guidance still fits modern retail because the hazards have not disappeared. If anything, late-hour service, quick exchanges, and staffing pressure can make it easier for a tense interaction to escalate fast. Stores that treat the closing shift as a routine paperwork exercise miss the point: the same hours that make operations quieter can also make workers more vulnerable.

The bigger picture is the scale of the risk

The federal data show why this cannot be shrugged off as a rare problem. In 2021-2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 57,610 nonfatal workplace violence cases that required days away from work, job restriction, or transfer, an annualized rate of 2.9 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent employees. OSHA says acts of violence are the third-leading cause of fatal occupational injuries in the United States.

BLS also found 41,960 such cases in health care and social assistance over the same period, representing 72.8% of all private-industry cases. That concentration shows how sharply customer-facing work can be affected when a workplace depends on constant interaction with the public. Retail is not health care, but it shares enough of the same exposure pattern, strangers, stress, and unpredictable behavior, to make the lesson obvious: safety systems have to be built into the job, not layered on after the fact.

What safer stores look like in practice

The best prevention programs are the ones workers can feel on the floor. Associates know where to go when a customer turns threatening. Managers respond quickly instead of minimizing the problem. Incidents are recorded, reviewed, and used to change staffing, procedures, and the physical setup of the store.

For Big Lots, that is the real takeaway from OSHA’s guidance. In a company facing closures, reorganizations, and uneven traffic, workplace violence prevention has to function like an operating discipline, not a binder on a shelf. When risk assessment, training, and reporting work together, they help frontline teams stay safer, document what keeps happening, and build a better case for the staffing and procedures they need.