OSHA reminds Big Lots to protect young retail workers

A quick summer hire can become an injury fast if a new Big Lots associate is sent to the floor before anyone explains the ladder, the pallet jack or the box cutter. OSHA’s warning is simple: speed should not outrun training, especially when young workers are still learning the stockroom, the sales floor and the rules that keep both safe.

The agency says employers must provide a safe workplace, follow OSHA standards and train workers in a language they understand. If a worker is under 18, there may be limits on the hours worked, the jobs performed and the equipment used. OSHA also says young workers have the right to ask questions, report unsafe conditions, use required safety gear and raise safety concerns without retaliation or discrimination.

That matters in retail, where OSHA says businesses rank high among U.S. industries for adolescent worker injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say about 126,000 young workers ages 16 to 24 missed work from injuries in 2021 and 2022, and almost 2 of every 5 young-worker injuries happened in a retail job.

OSHA says young workers are especially vulnerable when they face unsafe equipment, inadequate training, inadequate supervision, dangerous work that is illegal or inappropriate for youth under 18, pressure to work faster or stressful conditions. For a store manager, that means the first days on the job should slow down around the tasks that look routine but carry the most risk: climbing ladders, moving merchandise in stockrooms, using pallet jacks, handling cleaning chemicals and learning when to step back from a heated customer interaction.

The bigger labor backdrop is familiar to anyone staffing a discount store in the summer. The U.S. Department of Labor said in 2022 that millions of teenagers were working in agriculture, food services, retail, recreation and construction, and it stepped up outreach and enforcement as child labor violations and young-worker injuries rose. OSHA says host employers must treat temporary workers like existing workers, including giving young temporary workers adequate training.

Big Lots is still recruiting, with its careers page looking for hardworking and talented people, and its store locator currently shows 219 locations. The chain’s seasonal business depends on fast turnover and fast stocking, but the safety message is the opposite: new hires need clear instruction before the summer rush hardens into a preventable injury.