Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/1164813
8 www.cos-mag.com Canadian Occupational Safety FINES & PENALTIES &)((")%&&%&)$(' ) "(%&%&) "#%'")) (&(()#'"$)("%#$) $ #%(!')#"$'$) #)'!)% ) #!%(&')%&!%& #"!(')%#!'&')(&)("($$'& ) (&)(&)(!!)&')) %$% )#")'$% ')#")"'')'#$)(&)()!!)!%$ ) #)#"$'$)(&)"# $)((%!(!' ® Safety Compliance Made Easy! 2 COMPANIES FINED TOTAL OF $325,000 Vedas General Contracting and Richmond Park Developments have been fined a total of $325,000 for the death of a worker. On May 3, 2016, two workers were installing stucco on the exterior of a new residential multi-family development in Calgary when one of the workers fell from the lower work platform to the ground. The worker sustained fatal injuries as a result of the fall. Vedas General Contracting pleaded guilty to section 2(1)(a)(i) Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act: being an employer, failure to ensure the health and safety of a worker. It was convicted and fined $160,000 inclusive of the 15-per-cent victim fine surcharge and placed on 1.5 years of corporate probation. In addition, it was ordered to pay $40,000 in favour of Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) to fund a project to revise and update its scaffolding awareness course and to develop a related best practice for distribution to members of ACSA and the Building Industry and Land Development Alberta Association (BILD). Richmond Park Developments pleaded guilty to section 3(3) of the OHS act, being a prime contractor, failure to ensure that the OHS act, the regulations and the adopted code were complied with in respect of the work site. The company was convicted and fined $125,000 inclusive of the victim fine surcharge and placed on two years of corporate probation. SASKATOON COMPANY FINED $50,000 FOR WORKER INJURY A Saskatoon company has pleaded guilty to one count under Saskatchewan's Occupational Health and Safety regulations and has been fined fined $35,714 plus a surcharge of $14,285, for a total of $50,000. Charges stemmed from an incident that occurred on July 26, 2017, at a work site near Lloydminster, Sask. A worker sustained severe injuries when a combine tire fell off a forklift and struck the worker. In a news release from the province, the company was listed as 101296182 Saskatchewan Ltd., which CBC News says is farm equipment supplier Moody's Equipment. The company contravened subsection 154(2) of the regulations: being an employer, failure to ensure that only trained operators are required or permitted to operate powered mobile equipment, resulting in the serious injury to a worker. One additional charge was stayed. FATALITY RESULTS IN $130,000 FINE TO JAPANESE COMPANY Access Limited, an engineering company that develops, designs and manufactures automation equipment in Japan, has been fined $130,000 for the death of a worker in Ontario. The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Ontario Provincial Offences Act. On Aug, 31, 2017, two workers employed by Access Limited were assisting with the installation of a new metal stamping press and feeder at a facility in Tottenham, Ont. The power to the press machine was turned off, but a piece of equipment known as a "destacker feeder" remained powered and operational. One of the workers briefly left the work area in the early hours of Aug. 31 and observed the other worker performing diagnostic testing at the destacker feeder control panel. Upon returning, the worker discovered the victim's body positioned in front of a part of the destacker feeder known as the "DB bucket car." This car is a small mechanized cart that travels along rails. There is fencing surrounding the loading area for the bucket car, which has an opening that allows the car to leave the loading area to the unloading area. The body was found pinned between the edge of the bucket car and the frame of the fencing that surrounds the bucket car opening. The Ministry of Labour investigated the incident and determined the likely cause of the fatality was that, while the worker was present within the fenced area, the bucket car started and moved along the rail toward the opening of the fence and the worker. The investigation also revealed that safety interlock circuits were installed around the bucket car. If the fence door to the loading area is open or not present, the safety interlock circuits would be triggered and the bucket car would be prevented from moving. However, these safety interlock circuits had been overridden. The investigation did not reveal who overrode the interlock circuits or why. The investigation determined that Access Limited failed to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances, contrary to section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. RIO TINTO ALCAN FINED $662,102 Rio Tinto Alcan's Kitimat Plant has been fined $662,102. WorkSafeBC inspected this firm's aluminum smelter facility in response to an incident. While conducting maintenance work inside a gas treatment centre reactor, two workers were trapped inside the reactor and sustained exposure injuries. WorkSafeBC determined that work had been done without all locks in place as required by the firm's confined space key box procedure. In addition, no record of a risk assessment for the work task was available and the key box procedure did not name all the participants who applied locks. The firm failed to ensure that energy-isolating devices were locked in a safe position using acceptable procedures made available to all workers required to work on the equipment. This was a high-risk violation.