WASHINGTON, D.C. (WKBN) — Dollar General is facing new penalties from the U.S. Department of Labor, and an Ohio store is included in the latest controversy.

The penalties come from inspections in 2022 for nine locations in Maine, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The agency said that the safety failures found in the stores add $3.4 million in proposed penalties to the more than $21 million in fines the Department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed since 2017.

Investigators said they commonly found aisles, emergency exits, fire extinguishers and electrical panels blocked by merchandise and other materials and boxes stacked unsafely.

Specifically in Ohio at the Kettering store, a November 2022 inspection found exit routes, fire extinguishers and electrical panels blocked by merchandise. Dollar General was issued three repeat violations for fire and electrical hazards with $270,116 in proposed penalties.

“The recent findings and penalties continue Dollar General Crop. and Dolgencorp LLC’s long history of willful, repeat and serious workplace safety violations, a history that led OSHA to include Dollar General Corp. in its Severe Violation Enforcement Program,” the agency wrote in a news release.

Dollar General has 15 days to comply, request a conference or contest the findings.

Dollar General operates about 19,000 stores and 28 distribution centers in 47 states. It employs more than 173,000 workers with $9 billion in net sales.