Canadian Occupational Safety

8 Canadian Occupational Safety | www.cos-mag.com FINES & PENALTIES 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. Alum-Tek Industries penalized for lying to safety officer Alum-Tek Industries has been fined $65,886 by WorkSafeBC. The firm manufactures metal enclosures to house electrical equipment and is based in Langley, B.C. A WorkSafeBC inspection found the firm contravened a number of health and safety requirements by allowing its workers to spray flammable paint in the main shop area in the presence of potential ignition sources, such as heaters, lighting, electrical panels and receptacles and extension cords. Two of the portable spray systems they were using lacked proper bonding between the metal paint reservoirs and the rest of the spray system, as required by British Columbia's Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. In addition, three of the firm's workers were found with the seal of their full-face respirators compromised by facial hair. One of the firm's supervisors told WorkSafeBC that the firm had not previously spray-painted in the main shop area — a statement later shown to be false. WorkSafeBC issued a stop-work order. The firm's failure to eliminate or control ignition sources around flammable liquids and its failure to provide adequately bonded spray systems were high-risk violations. The firm also failed to provide its workers with the supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety, a repeated violation. Further, the firm is being penalized for knowingly providing a WorkSafeBC officer with false information. School division fined under OHS for student injury Frontier School Division in Manitoba has been fined $31,000. On Dec. 3, 2015, a student from Frontier School Division's Engaged Learners Program was instructed on how to operate a 10-inch table saw. As the student began guiding a piece of wood through the rotating saw blade, the saw jammed and kicked back, pulling the board and the student's hand into the rotating saw blade. The student suffered serious injuries to his left hand. The Engaged Learners Program is designed to engage students who are non-attenders or highly inconsistent attenders in their home high school. Students involved in the program are bussed to a facility in Egg Lake, Man. where they live for a 12-day period. They attend classes and participate in a variety of extra-curricular activities. Classes are focused on basic life skills (reading, writing, simple math) as well as a number of trades and specialties (power mechanics, building construction, cosmetolog y, culinar y arts, health care and early childhood education). After the program, some students go back to their home high school while others seek assistance from the program to enter the workforce through a trade. On March 9, Frontier School Division pleaded guilty under section 16.5(1)(b) of the Workplace Safety and Health Regulations, M.R. 217/2006 to the charge of failing to ensure that safeguards were in place to prevent a worker from coming into contact with the blade of a DeWalt table saw. Judge orders City of Edmonton to fund new safety training The City of Edmonton is paying out a total of $300,000 for the death of a dump truck driver. It was fined $85,000, inclusive of a 15 per cent victim's fine surcharge, and ordered to pay $214,500 in favour of AMTA (Alberta Motor Transportation Association) to develop competencies and safety training for use and operation of aggregate hauling equipment. In April 2015, Stephen Penny, 35, was unloading reclaimed street sweepings from a dump truck at a City of Edmonton facility. While the worker was at the rear of the truck, the sweepings unexpectedly spilled from the elevated dump box and buried the worker. The worker suffered fatal injuries as a result. The City of Edmonton pleaded guilty to section 189 of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Code: failing, as an employer, to ensure material that could be dislodged, moved or spilled was contained, restrained or protected to eliminate potential danger to workers. In a press release after the sentencing, the city said it "has acknowledged its responsibility in this tragic incident and recognizes the loss felt by (Penny's) family, friends and colleagues at the city." In a separate incident, the city was fined $1,000 and required to pay $114,000 for the purchase of prosthesis for a worker who suffered a life-altering injury to her arm. Vickie Galet was a bin truck driver employed by the City of Edmonton. On June 6, 2015, she parked her truck in a designated location inside a waste management facility and walked to the rear of the truck to unlock the bin tailgate. A second City of Edmonton worker operating a front-end loader drove into the bin truck. Galet's arm was pinned between the bin and the front-end loader bucket causing a severe crush injury. The City of Edmonton pleaded guilty to section 194(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Code: failing, as an employer, to ensure vehicle traffic was controlled at a work site that was potentially dangerous to a worker on foot or in a vehicle. Worker killed on cheese production line Montreal-based Saputo Dairy Products has been fined $150,000, plus a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, for the death of a worker by a cheese-cutter machine. The company is the largest dairy processor in Canada. On Dec. 15, 2016, the worker was using a machine called the "640 cutter" — a conveyor where 640-pound blocks of cheese are cut — in the company's Trenton, Ont. facility. Although the employer took the position that the 640 cutter was only to be used for large blocks of cheese, workers were regularly using this guillotine- style cutter to cut smaller blocks as well. The cutter consists of a lower stationary bar and a moving upper bar. This bar drops at the rate of 2 inches every second, taking 17 seconds to lower completely. At its lowest point, there is clearance of 2.5 inches between the bars. There is no guard at this obvious pinch point and no automated lockout or light curtain barrier to prevent access, the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) said. The worker, who was experienced but was working alone at the time of the incident, was found deceased by other workers in the closed pinch point of the 640 cutter. There were no witnesses to explain how the worker came to be in that position, the MOL said. The worker was found kneeling on the end of the conveyor belt with hands on either side of the framework. "Using the 640 cutter for 19-kilogram blocks of Parmesan would not require the worker to be in that position, and where the worker was found would have provided no advantage to machine use," the ministry said. Saputo pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that any part of a machine, device or thing that may endanger the safety of any worker shall be equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevents access to the pinch point. It was in violation of section 25 of Ontario Regulation 851 (the Industrial Establishments Regulation) thereby committing an offence under section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. At the time of the incident, Saputo made counselling available to employees.

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