Brooklyn Best Buy faces emergency exit fines

A Best Buy in Brooklyn has been cited for blocking an emergency exit, according to reports by The Brooklyn Eagle. Penalized by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the retailer — which had previously been fined for a blocked exit in another location — will answer to a proposed fine of $27,500.

Kay Gee, OSHA’s area director for Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, told the Eagle: “Retail operations can and do contain significant hazards. This was not the first time that Best Buy has been cited for this type of hazard… Employers must take effective steps to ensure that safety measures are in place and in use at all their workplaces and that hazards do not recur.”

Investigation into the incident began on December 2, when a shopper shared a photo of “an apparently blocked” exit. OSHA inspectors discovered that the Best Buy storefront exit was blocked by a printer, an equipment rack, and a stack of boxes — all of which could impede customers from exiting the store in the event of an emergency. A Best Buy location in Springfield, Pennsylvania was cited by OHSA in December 2008 for a similar violation.

“One way to prevent hazards before they occur is for an employer to implement an effective illness and injury prevention program in which they will work with their employees to identify, address and eliminate hazards,” Robert Kulick, OSHA regional administrator in New York, told the Eagle.

As for next steps, Best Buy is granted 15 business days from the time it received the citation and proposed fines to comply, meet with OSHA’s area director, or argue against the charges with the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

OSHA provides detailed requirements for workplace exit routes, necessary safety features for exit routes, as well as design and construction requirements. For example, a workplace must usually maintain at least two exit routes, though more may be necessary depending on the size and arrangement of the workplace and the number of workers.

Safety features for exit routes include, among others, keeping the area free of highly flammable items and of decorations or signs that prevent workers from seeing exit route doors; setting up routes that avoid hazardous areas; and, as relevant to Best Buy, ensuring that “exit routes are free and unobstructed by materials, equipment, locked doors, or dead-end corridors.”

Best Buy isn’t the only recent offender. Two Forever 21 locations, one in New York City and one in Paramus, New Jersey, were recently cited — again — by OSHA for blocked exits, among other violations. OSHA recommended the clothing retailer be hit with fines of $236,500. “It is unacceptable for Forever 21 to continue repeating these violations, which are common among retailers, and put workers at serious risk,” Kulick had said in a statement. “Retail managers have a legal responsibility to inspect their stores, identify potential hazards and quickly eliminate them to ensure worker safety and health.”

Have a complaint about a workplace hazard? Call OSHA at 800-321-6742, or visit their website.