Walmart Still Hasn't Paid Its $7,000 Fine For 2008 Black Friday Death

Five years after a worker was killed in a crush of shoppers on Black Friday, Walmart still hasn't paid the $7,000 it was fined for allegedly failing to protect employees on the biggest shopping day of the year.

Sitting on appeal with a review commission, the case of Jdimytai Damour's death highlights how corporations can choose to fend off modest penalties over workplace dangers for years on end, according to occupational health experts.

For a company with sales of $466 billion last fiscal year, the $7,000 fine from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration represents little more than a single store's rounding error. Walmart would have vastly outspent that sum simply in legal fees devoted to fighting the penalty. But the world's largest retailer is less concerned with the monetary fine than with the broader implications of the case. A negative ruling could compel Walmart and other retail companies like it to take additional safety precautions for workers or face new liabilities.

"It's not about the penalty," said Celeste Monforton, a former OSHA analyst who's now a lecturer at George Washington University. "It's this interest in seeing how far Walmart can push back against the decision."



Walmart Still Hasn't Paid Its $7,000 Fine For 2008 Black Friday Death