When the doors opened early at Wal-Mart's Valley Stream store on Black Friday shopping day in November 2008, the store was ill equipped to handle the estimated 2,000 bargain hunters who stormed its entrance. As a result, Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old temporary employee, was trampled and died from asphyxiation.

In the wake of Damour's death, the Long Island office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") conducted an investigation and eventually fined Wal-Mart $7,000 for what it termed a "violation of a general duty to protect employees."

That did not sit well with Wal-Mart, which, according to reports, has filed 20 motions and spent more than $1 million in legal fees contesting the fine. Greg Rossiter, Wal-Mart's director of corporate communications, says that OSHA has sought to define trampling in an erroneous way and as a hazard that retailers must prevent. He says that Wal-Mart's accountability is "for a standard that was neither proposed nor issued at the time of the incident."

Wal-Mart's legal maneuverings have had a toll on OSHA's legal staff, which has devoted close to 5,000 hours to the appeal before an independent government commission. OSHA officials have stated that they view massing crowds such as the one in Valley Stream as potentially deadly occupational hazards against which store owners must protect workers.

David Pratt, a member of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, says that Wal-Mart's appeal is unfortunate. "They are forcing OSHA to devote tremendous legal resources to a pretty modest fine," he says, "considering the size of the corporation involved."

Related Resource: liherald.com "Walmart fights OSHA fine" July 14, 2010