Walmart fine upheld from 2008 trampling death

A judge upheld a citation against Walmart for unsatisfactory crowd control stemming the November 2008 Black Friday trampling death of a temporary employee at the Valley Stream store. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission Chief Administrative Law Judge Covette Rooney made her decision on March 25.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, who issued the citation, were pleased with the decision. “This is a win for both workers and consumers,” said Dr. David Michaels, OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor. “It’s only fitting that [on March 25], the 100th anniversary of the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City where 146 workers lost their lives, a judge affirmed OSHA’s right to use the general duty clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to enforce the law and protect the safety and health of workers.”

In May 2009, OSHA cited Walmart for what they called “inadequate crowd management” resulting in the death of Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old seasonal employee. Damour was knocked to the ground and crushed by an estimated crowd of 2,000 shoppers, just before the store’s 5 a.m. opening on Black Friday.

OSHA investigated and declared that Walmart failed to “implement reasonable and effective crowd control practices,” therefore putting workers at risk. “The store should have recognized, based on prior ‘Blitz Friday’ experiences, the need to implement effective crowd management to protect its employees,” said Anthony Ciuffo, OSHA’s acting area director for Long Island.

Walmart was slapped with a $7,000 fine, the maximum penalty amount for a serious violation under law.

But Walmart officials did not accept the OSHA penalty, contesting it last July. Their argument was that “crowd trampling” was wrongfully defined as an occupational hazard that retailers have to prevent. “OSHA wants to hold Walmart accountable for a standard that was neither proposed nor issued at the time of the incident,” said Greg Rossiter, Walmart’s director of corporate communications.