Citation of Wal-Mart's negligence upheld

A judge Friday upheld a citation that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's issued last year against Wal-Mart, saying that the megastore was negligent when it failed to protect its workers during the 2008 Black Friday sale at the Valley Stream store.

Crowds rushing into the store for the post-Thanksgiving sale that year trampled Jdimytai Damour, a temporary worker, who died of asphyxiation.

After the incident, Wal-Mart agreed to adopt a plan from the Nassau County district attorney's office to use crowd management techniques at the special sales for the 92 stores it has in the state, and the company set up a $100,000 victims' compensation fund.

But the mega-retailer has vigorously fought the citation's $7,000 fine that OSHA levied in May, 2009. The company claims that protecting workers from crowds was not a federal standard at the time of Damour's death.

Carole Trottere, a spokeswoman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, said, "The judge's decision validates that DA Rice's settlement agreement with Wal-Mart achieved more than any monetary fine could. It ensured that our world's largest retailer now has stringent crowd-management protocols in place in each of its stores across the country so that a tragedy like the one that occurred in 2008 never happens again."

Experts have said a decision like the one announced Friday by Chief Administrative Law Judge Covette Rooney, of the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, could have industrywide impact: It could make special sales difficult and unprofitable for retailers.

A Wal-Mart representative could not be reached Friday evening.