Labor Department to host forum on wage, safety rules for employers

Dollar General managers trying to keep schedules, time records and stockroom safety in line will get a free chance next week to hear directly from the Labor Department on the rules that most often turn into store-level problems.

The Labor Department said April 28 it will host a two-day online forum on May 6 and 7 for employers, workers and other stakeholders. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. It is built around practical compliance help on federal wage, safety and workplace rules, with officials from the Wage and Hour Division, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Mine Safety and Health Administration and Veterans’ Employment and Training Service taking part. The Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also will participate.

For Dollar General stores, the most relevant sessions are likely to be the ones that touch the daily friction points of retail work: self-audit programs, OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention campaign, opinion letters, veterans’ employment rights, child labor laws, prevailing wage requirements and registered apprenticeships. Those topics line up with the kinds of questions that come up when a store is short-staffed, when hours do not match a schedule, when training is inconsistent or when managers need a faster answer before a problem becomes a complaint.

The forum lands against a long safety enforcement record for Dollar General. In July 2024, OSHA announced a corporate-wide settlement with Dollar General and its retail subsidiaries that required $12 million in penalties and major safety changes nationwide. The settlement called for an expanded safety structure, additional safety managers, inventory reductions to cut blocked exits and unsafe material storage, safety training for leaders and non-managers, and a safety and health committee. OSHA said Dollar General had been in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program since 2022.

OSHA has said the company’s problems were not isolated. From Jan. 1, 2017 through July 7, 2024, the agency said Dollar General had more than $26 million in proposed safety-related penalties. OSHA also said it found similar violations in more than 180 inspections at Dollar General stores across the country. In a May 2023 release, the agency said Dollar General and Dolgencorp LLC operated about 18,000 stores and 17 distribution centers in 47 states and employed more than 150,000 workers.

The Wage and Hour Division says it enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act, including the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. For a retailer built on thin margins and lean staffing, that makes the forum less like a policy seminar and more like a reminder that payroll accuracy, scheduling, safety training and documentation all sit on the same compliance line.