OSHA’s Plan Targets Safety of Store Clerks

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will announce today recommendations intended to improve the safety of retail clerks, who are gunned down in such numbers that their job ranks among the most dangerous in America.

The action follows a lengthy political controversy in which the retail industry has strenuously objected to federal efforts to create basic protections for night clerks of convenience stores and other retail outlets.

Government studies show that about 1,000 workers, almost half of them employed in retail stores, are killed every year in robberies, while an additional 18,000 are victims of assaults and other violence.

Over the strong objections of the industry, OSHA will recommend that retail outlets with a history of crime use bulletproof glass or employ at least two clerks at night.

The recommendations are nonbinding, but victims’ groups said that they represent a major victory for a low-income group that has little political clout.

“It is our first accomplishment in 20 years,” said Nancy Carothers, whose father was gunned down in a 7-Eleven. “We have always been squashed by the industry.”

OSHA also suggests that retail stores keep a minimum of cash on hand, use drop safes, keep their windows clear of obstructions, have good lighting, train workers in how to behave during an armed robbery and use security cameras.

Homicide ranks as the leading cause of workplace death for women and the second-highest for men after traffic accidents. In California, homicide ranks as the leading cause of occupational death for both sexes.

For OSHA, the retail store initiative points to a new mission in which the agency is expanding its jurisdiction to better reflect the risks that American workers face in the modern economy, according to OSHA chief Charles Jeffress. Although 75% of OSHA’s inspections are at industrial settings, 60% of work-related injuries occur elsewhere.

“We are going to be increasingly focusing our efforts outside of manufacturing and construction,” Jeffress said.

Indeed, that change in direction is a key part of what triggered such strong opposition by retailers, who asserted that crime is not an occupational issue and that the safety recommendations represent an unwarranted intrusion by government into their domain.

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Led by the National Assn. of Convenience Stores, the retailers made heavy political contributions and, weeks before the 1996 elections, enlisted 108 members of Congress to write a letter to OSHA objecting to the issuance of the guidelines.

The protest won the support of many Republicans and Democrats, who argued that the guidelines were another example of federal intrusion into the private sector, would increase paperwork for small businesses and amounted to mandatory rules in the guise of voluntary recommendations.

The strong political opposition nearly killed the effort, and it was not until Jeffress took over at OSHA last year that the guidelines were put back on track.

Retailers still insist there is no scientific evidence that having two or more clerks in a store at night deters armed robbers. They say that OSHA should have delayed issuing the guidelines until additional studies were completed.

But that argument is strongly disputed by police agencies, including those in Florida, which have taken a lead in getting strong local laws passed that require convenience stores to have at least two employees at night.

Rejecting the industry’s position, Jeffress said that OSHA believes there is “solid and convincing evidence” that the presence of two clerks will deter armed robbers and save lives.

The death toll of retail clerks reflects the ubiquitous presence of the nation’s 95,000 convenience stores, according to Rosemary Erickson, a workplace safety expert. The majority of robbers walk out with less than $50, she said.

The convenience store industry is worried that the OSHA recommendations, while voluntary, could be used in private lawsuits.

Indeed, victims’ groups argue that if a retail store ignores the guidelines and an employee is shot to death, the stores should be held accountable in court.

The OSHA guidelines, titled “Recommendations for Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Late Night Retail Establishments,” are available on the Internet at https://www.osha.gov.