Canadian Occupational Safety

8 Canadian Occupational Safety | www.cos-mag.com FINES & PENALTIES Allen Services fined $100K for young worker fatality Allen Services and Contract- ing has been fined $100K for an offence under the North- west Territories' Safety Act. The conviction stems from an incident on June 28, 2016, in which a worker, David Vinnicombe, was fatally injured at a work site near Inuvik, N.W.T. The 19 year old from Australia was working for the company when the heavy equipment he was operating rolled over and killed him. On Feb. 20, Allen Services and Contracting appeared in the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories in Inuvik. The company had previously been convicted of an offence under the Safety Act for failing to ensure work was sufficiently and competently supervised, a violation of Section 16(1)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Regulations. The prosecutor and counsel for Allen Services jointly proposed a sentence of a fine of $100,000. Counsel for Allen Services requested a waiver of the victim of crime surcharge. The judge agreed with the joint sentencing proposal, as well as with the request to waive the victim of crime surcharge. Allen Services was sentenced to a fine of $100,000, which is paid to and forms part of the Workers' Protection Fund. After Vinnicombe's death, the company instituted company-wide training and updated its safety policies. The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is reminding employers to take all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of all persons on their work sites, including providing sufficient training for those operating powered mobile equipment and other heavy machinery. Want more? Check out the brand new Convictions page at www.cos-mag.com/ convictions where we are publishing large fines and significant penalties imposed on companies across Canada for OHS violations. British Columbia Rapid Transit fined $600K WorkSafeBC has issued a fine of $607,497 against British Columbia Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC) due to an incident at the Nanaimo, B.C. SkyTrain station. In May 2017, two electricians were working on an energized electrical panel when an electrical arc flash occurred, injuring one of the workers. WorkSafeBC's investigation determined that the panel had not been completely locked out before work had begun. The Vancouver-based employer failed to ensure energy sources were isolated and effectively controlled, and that energy isolation devices were secured using appropriate locks. These were high- risk violations, WorkSafeBC said. The employer also failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety. The agency said BCRTC's safety documents were general in their content and did not have specific lockout procedures for the panel that the worker was working on. In the wake of the incident, BCRTC immediately reviewed and updated relevant policies and practices, and ensured these changes were communicated to staff. Worker died after hand, arm caught in pulley Shercom Industries has been fined $420,000 in Saskatoon Provincial Court. This is one of the largest occupational health and safety fines the province's history. The tire recycling company in Martensville, Sask., north of Saskatoon, pleaded guilty to an occupational health and safety violation that resulted in the death of 18-year-old Cade Sprackman. On Jan. 27, 2015, Sprackman's hand and arm were caught in the pulley of a tire shredder conveyor belt, resulting in his death. After graduating from high school, Sprackman got a job at Shercom Industries to help pay for film school. According to the judge, there was an incident that occurred on the same piece of equipment — with the same safety concern — just 10 days before Sprackman's death. The company pleaded guilty to contravening section 12 of the regulations that says the duties of an employer include "the provision and maintenance of a plant, systems of work and working environments that ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of the employer's workers." Three additional charges were stayed in court. Now-defunct First Nickel fined $1.3 million for death of two workers First Nickel, a mining company that is no longer in operation, has been fined $1.3 million after two workers died at its Lockerby Mine in Chelmsford, Ont. in May 2014. The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The fine is the largest one levied in an Ontario court for a mining fatality, according to the Ministry of Labour. Miners Marc Methe and Norm Bisaillon were killed after a fall of ground at the Lockerby Mine. First Nickel was convicted on six counts of Ontario Regulation 854/90 (Mines and Mining Plants) and the Occupational Health and Safety Act for offences at the Lockerby Mine. The company was fined for failing to ensure: • a quality control program was developed to ensure that ground support systems are properly installed • a workplace in an underground mine is kept free of accumulations or flow of water which might endanger a worker • a written record was made describing a dangerous condition that had not been removed at the end of a shift • a notice in writing was given where a fuse, a detonator or an explosive is found to be defective • an employer, in consultation with the joint health and safety committee, developed a written program to provide for the timely communication of information between workers and supervisors in the mine for ground stability, ground movement, falls of ground, ground monitoring equipment and emergencies • the ground conditions of the workplace were examined for dangers and hazards, and made safe. The mine closed in 2015. First Nickel went out of business in 2016 and was not represented in court. The families are now asking for an inquest into the deaths so that recommendations can be put forward to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.

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