In 2025, HD Supply’s Warehouse Safety Failures Demand Urgent Action

A federal lawsuit, repeated OSHA citations, and employee complaints expose a troubling pattern of negligence at HD Supply—raising urgent questions about safety standards inside one of America’s largest warehouse networks.

In June 2024, a routine shift at an HD Supply distribution center in Forest Park, Georgia, turned into a nightmare. Forklift operator Quinton J. Hall noticed his vehicle’s battery smoking and overheating – moments later, it exploded, spewing flames and toxic fumes through the warehouse.Hall was left disoriented with a serious back injury, having doused the blaze with fire extinguishers as coworkers scrambled behind caution tape. But instead of receiving support for his injuries, Hall says he was met with humiliation and retaliation from HD Supply management in the aftermath.Now Hall is fighting back with a $50 million federal lawsuit, alleging that the HD Supply's unsafe warehouse conditions and neglect at the Forest Park facility led to his ordeal. His complaint claims the company ignored safety alarms, denied him light-duty work while he was hurt, and fired him for speaking up about the incident – painting a damning picture of a safety culture where warnings went unheeded, and an injured employee was cast aside.

Hall’s case, filed in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, is not just about one man’s job loss. As he writes in his complaint, it’s about “safety and dignity behind warehouse walls” at one of America’s largest industrial distributors. He argues that his forklift fire was more than a freak accident – it was the inevitable result of systemic lapses. Hall, who is representing himself pro se, describes how other employees with injuries were given easy “light-duty” assignments in an enclosed area (nicknamed “the cage”), yet he was made to continue heavy labor despite a doctor-documented back injury. When he pressed for accommodations and raised concerns, relations with his supervisors quickly deteriorated. By late July 2024, Hall was out of a job – an outcome he contends was retaliatory punishment for voicing safety and discrimination complaints. (HD Supply has not yet publicly responded to Hall’s allegations in court, and no findings on the merits have been made.) Still, the federal civil-rights and workplace safety lawsuit Hall launched is forcing a hard look at HD Supply’s warehouse practices, beyond corporate PR and into the gritty reality of day-to-day operations.

OSHA Records Reveal a Pattern of Violation's

Hall’s disturbing story is not an isolated one. Federal safety records indicate a pattern of workplace hazards and OSHA violations at HD Supply warehouses. For example, in April 2020, an HD Supply facility in Riverside, California, was the site of a serious accident that could have been fatal. An employee unloading heavy rolls of insulation was crushed under a 600-pound bundle of material that slipped from a truck bed. OSHA investigators found that a forklift was never positioned beside the load to catch any falling rolls – a basic safety measure that was shockingly neglected. The worker suffered multiple broken bones (fractured legs, crushed vertebrae, and bruised lungs) and was rushed to the hospital. In the aftermath, OSHA cited HD Supply for serious safety violations, initially proposing an $18,000 fine for the lapse.

That was not an isolated case. In fact, OSHA inspection records show multiple enforcement actions against HD Supply sites over the years. In one 2018 case, a New York HD Supply warehouse was penalized $18,944 for federal safety violations. Another OSHA enforcement database entry shows a subsidiary (HD Supply Waterworks) cited in 2014 for safety issues as well. These figures may pale beside Hall’s $50 million claim, but they underscore a troubling through-line: at various locations and times, HD Supply’s warehouses have drawn OSHA scrutiny for unsafe conditions. Whether it’s a neglected forklift in Georgia or improper loading procedures in California, the company’s safety lapses have had real consequences. “It’s about accountability,” Hall emphasizes in his suit, framing his personal ordeal as a wake-up call for the entire company.

Employees Describe “No Safety Culture” on the Warehouse Floor's

It’s not only regulators and injured workers sounding the alarm – HD Supply’s own employees have long voiced concerns about hazardous conditions. On job review platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed, workers from various HD Supply locations echo similar themes of poor safety practices, inadequate training, and management indifference. “To top it off, the dirtiest warehouse I have seen. No safety culture. Training sucks, and the managers don’t care about you,” wrote one former distribution supervisor in Illinois. Another reviewer described chaotic workflows where “management constantly changed priorities,” and front-line employees were left to fend for themselves in disorganized, pressure-cooker environments. The picture that emerges from these candid testimonies is one of a company where productivity and speed are often prioritized over worker well-being, and where internal complaints about unsafe practices may be brushed aside or even met with retaliation. It’s a stark contrast to HD Supply’s public image as a leading industrial supplier. While the company’s brochures tout its vast product catalog and logistics network, the people on the warehouse floor tell a different story – one of dusty, dangerous facilities where accidents feel inevitable, and safety protocols exist mostly on paper.

Indeed, Hall’s allegation that HD Supply “ignored safety alarms” during his forklift crisis resonates with these worker reports. It suggests a corporate culture that normalizes ignoring warning signs – whether they come from machinery or from employees themselves. Forklifts with faltering batteries, racks stacked precariously high, missing guards or PPE, overworked staff – such hazards become ticking time bombs in a warehouse. If workers fear speaking up (or are ignored when they do), small problems can spiral into emergencies. Hall’s experience of being denied light duty and then terminated after raising concerns sends a chilling message to other employees: that speaking out about safety might cost you your job. No company committed to safety would want that message in its ranks.

The High Stakes of Warehouse Safety at HD Supply Inc. 

The stakes in this conversation go far beyond one facility or one company. Warehousing is among the most dangerous industries in America, and any pattern of neglect can have deadly results. Government data show that the warehouse sector’s injury rate is more than double the average for all private industries (5.5 cases per 100 workers vs. 2.7 per 100). A Department of Labor audit in 2021 found warehouse-related injuries had nearly doubled (from about 42,500 to over 80,500 annual cases) even though the number of warehouses grew only 14% – a clear sign that hazards are outpacing safety improvements. Within these alarming statistics, forklifts stand out as a leading cause of warehouse injuries and deaths. In U.S. workplaces, forklifts alone cause roughly 7,500 injuries and almost 100 fatalities each year, making them one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment on the warehouse floor. Hall’s near-disaster with an exploding forklift battery is a dramatic outlier, but countless “ordinary” forklift accidents – tip-overs, collisions, workers struck by loads – happen with grim regularity in this industry.

For HD Supply, which operates dozens of distribution centers and was re-acquired by retail giant Home Depot in 2020, there is both a moral and financial imperative to address these safety risks. Injuries not only harm workers and their families; they also cost businesses in lost time, compensation, and reputational damage. And as Hall’s case shows, a single incident can explode (quite literally, in his case) into a major legal battle and public relations crisis. The pattern of OSHA citations, serious accidents, and employee complaints surrounding HD Supply suggests that whatever safety programs exist on paper, they are failing to be consistently implemented on the ground. When multiple warehouses report similar lapses – and when a worker feels compelled to file a federal complaint to be heard – it points to a systemic issue that top leadership must urgently confront.

A Call for Accountability and Reform 

Should not take a $50 million lawsuit or a catastrophic injury to spur a company into action. HD Supply’s leadership, and its parent company Home Depot, need to treat these red flags for what they are: urgent signals to reform the company’s safety culture. Concretely, that means investing in better training, enforcing standard operating procedures (like using a spotter forklift during loadingosha.gov), maintaining equipment proactively, and empowering employees to halt operations the moment a hazard arises. It also means protecting – not punishing – workers who report injuries or unsafe conditions. No one should fear retaliation for telling their boss that a forklift is malfunctioning or that they’ve been hurt on the job. According to Hall’s federal complaint, it’s about preserving dignity as well as safety for the people “behind warehouse walls”.

Regulators, too, should keep a close watch. OSHA has rules on the books to protect warehouse workers, but those rules mean little if enforcement is sporadic or if fines are too small to catch a corporation’s attention. The fact that HD Supply has had repeat OSHA issues indicates that prior penalties (like a ~$19,000 fine in 2018violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org) may have been shrugged off as a cost of doing business. Going forward, stronger consequences – whether higher fines, more frequent inspections, or even temporary shutdowns for egregious violations – might be necessary to jolt this company into compliance.

Above all, every injury and near-miss at HD Supply is a reminder that workplace safety can be a matter of life and death. Hall was lucky to survive the forklift blast in Georgia; others might not be. As the warehousing sector booms in the e-commerce era, companies like HD Supply must not cut corners in the race to fill orders and maximize profits. The workers who keep those supply chains moving deserve to come home in one piece at the end of the day. It’s time for HD Supply to heed the warnings – from Quinton Hall’s harrowing experience to the voices of its own employees – and make its warehouses safe. Anything less is an injustice to the very people who make its business possible.