Toronto packaging manufacturer Electro-Pack Inc. was fined $50,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.

The incident that led to the fine occurred on December 5, 2009, when a worker was using a machine that forms plastic using heat and a press. The worker discovered the machine was jammed and attempted to remove the jam by reaching inside. The machine cycled while the worker’s hand was still inside, and the hand was seriously injured.

Electro-Pack Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the machine was equipped with a guard or other device to prevent access to the moving part.

The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Lynette Stethem, who also imposed the mandatory 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Irving Shipbuilding Inc. is scheduled to stand trial in March 2012 on Occupational Health and Safety Act charges stemming from an industrial accident that injured a worker at the Halifax Shipyard three years ago.

The accident that led to the charges occurred on March 4, 2008, when a 50-year-old worker who was performing maintenance on the dry dock fell about six metres. Emergency personnel were called, and the worker was taken to hospital with unspecified injuries. The Nova Scotia Labour Department immediately launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fall.

The result of that investigation led to the Labour department charging Irving Shipbuilding with four offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act: failing to protect employees from a hazard of falling, failing to ensure there were adequate guardrails, failing to make sure workers entering a confined space wore full body harnesses; and failing to ensure the worker who fell had been provided with confined-space training.

The company had originally scheduled to go to trial in Halifax provincial court this coming September, but lawyers appeared before Judge Anne Derrick last week to ask for postponement, and she rescheduled the trial for 10 days, beginning March 5.

Halifax Shipyard is one of four yards, along with Seaspan Marine Inc. in Vancouver, Seaway Marine and Industrial in Ontario, and the Davie Yards in Quebec, who are bidding on Ottawa’s $35-billion national shipbuilding program. Irving Shipbuilding Inc. hopes to land the bulk of the contract, about $25 billion worth of work building 20 navy vessels.

According to an economic impact study done by the Conference Board of Canada, if they win the combat vessel contract, it could mean more than 11,000 new jobs in Nova Scotia by 2020, the height of construction. The deadline for bids is July 21, with a decision expected in September.

Ontario-based Goldcorp Canada Ltd., a mining operation doing business as Musselwhite Mine, an underground gold mining operation, was fined $50,000 last week for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a Ministry of Labour (MoL) inspection.

A Ministry inspector visited the Musselwhite Mine, located about 650 kilometers northwest of Thunder Bay, on November 14, 2009. As the inspector reviewed the mine’s training records, it was determined that one of the mine’s workers was not registered as fully trained in all of the prescribed training programs required for work in a hard rock underground mine.

As a result of that inspection, Goldcorp Canada Ltd. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that a worker was trained as prescribed. Justice of the Peace Edith Baas imposed the $50,000, and also imposed the statutorily required 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

A failure to properly train one worker cost the company a total of $62,500.

A Concord, Ontario-based curtain wall assembler, Zimmcor, Inc., was fined $50,000 last week for two violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, as a result of an accident in which a worker was seriously injured.

Workers were attempting to move a cart holding several 22-foot-long aluminum extrusions on January 23, 2009, after that cart became wedged between several others. One worker was positioned between the cart they were trying to move and another cart, and as he pushed on the wedged cart, other workers were pulling. As they did so, the cart tipped over, causing the load to fall on and fracture the pushing worker’s leg. When a co-worker tried to limit the damage by attempting to remove adjacent bundles of extrusions with a forklift, the forklift accidentally touched the cart and more extrusions fell on the injured worker’s leg.

An investigation by the Ministry of Labour determined that the extrusions were not properly balanced or secured on the cart. An inspector examined the workplace on January 26, 2009, and also observed that shields on a double-bladed chop saw were tied with metal holdbacks, which rendered the shields ineffective as a means of protecting workers from the hazards posed by the saw’s moving blades.

Zimmcor Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the load being transported, placed or stored would not tip, collapse or fall, and to ensure that the load could be removed or withdrawn without endangering the worker. The company also pleaded guilty to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the shields on a double-bladed chop saw were not rendered ineffective by metal holdbacks.

As a result of these guilty pleas, Zimmcor Inc. was fined $45,000 for the count that led to the worker’s injury, and $5,000 for the charge related to the chop saw. The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Malik Asad, who also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Ontario uniform supplier G&K Services Canada Inc. was fined $60,000 last week for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after an accident that injured a worker was injured.

The company operates an industrial laundry service in Windsor. As part of the laundry process, clothing is placed into a bag with a drawstring at the bottom. The bag moves vertically along a conveyor, until it hits a sensor at the end, whereupon it is hoisted up into the air.

At the time of the accident, on September 24, 2009, a worker noticed that the drawstring on one of the bags was untied, and he attempted to tie the bag while walking with it along the conveyor. At the time the bag hit the sensor, the worker’s thumb was still entangled in the bag’s drawstring. The bag was then hoisted aloft. As a result, the worker was lifted into the air with the bag, and his thumb was amputated by the force of the moving bag.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the emergency stop button on the bag hoist had been placed too high up for a worker to reach in an emergency. G&K Services Canada Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that an emergency stop button was located within easy reach of the machine operator.

A $60,000 fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Robert Gay, who also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The relatives of a Nova Scotia worker who died after inhaling a chemical that caused his suffocation say the fine levied against his employer is just a ‘’slap on the hand” for a giant drug manufacturer Sepracor Canada, and they are very disappointed.

A plea deal between the Crown and Sepracor last week led to the dropping of four of five charges under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act in the death of worker Ronald Daigle. The remaining charge, failing to provide venting for a worker who died in a workplace accident, to which Sepracor pleaded guilty, resulted in a fine of $45,000.

The incident in question occurred on October 7, 2008 at the Sepracor factory in Windsor. Daigle was at his workstation, handling the chemical trimethylsilyl diazomethane, a chemical with highly toxic fumes. Due to workplace renovations occurring at the time, the venting hood that was usually in place to suck away such fumes was inoperable. The company had apparently notified employees the vent hood wasn’t working, and they made a list of procedures workers should avoid that day. But there was no notice to employees to avoid working with the chemical and its toxic fumes, and they provided no individual breathing apparatus.

That night, after being exposed to the chemical for an extended time without proper ventilation, Daigle felt ill and began coughing up blood. Within 18 hours of his initial exposure to the chemical, he was in intensive care in a Halifax hospital. According to experts, the fumes of trimethylsilyl diazomethane actually destroy the lungs by filling them with so much fluid that air can’t get into them, which causes the exposed victim to actually smother.

Even though the company had provided no alternative to the venting hood, the court agreed with the Crown and Sepracor’s joint recommendation to dismiss charges that the firm failed to ensure adequate personal protection equipment and that the employee was instructed in the safe use of the chemical. Two other charges – failing to instruct an employee in safe use of a substance in the company’s lab and failing to ensure that no person would disturb the scene of an accident — were also dismissed.

Not only was Daigle’s family upset at what it considered to be the light fine, but the Labour Department investigator who looked into the incident suggested that the fine could have been larger, given that the maximum fine for a failure to provide venting was $250,000 at the time of the incident.

After this incident, the information sheets describing trimethylsilyl diazomethane in Canada have been changed to indicate that its fumes can severely damage lungs.

The head of the Canadian Auto Workers, Canada’s largest private sector union, is sending out a warning to everyone that a large number of the country’s youngest workers are being asked to work in unsafe conditions. Not only that, but young workers often have no idea of their rights, including the right to refuse unsafe work, according to CAW president Ken Lewenza.

The warning comes in the wake of a $350,000 fine levied last week against retail grocer Metro Ontario for an Occupational Health and Safety Act violation that caused the death of a 17-year-old worker back in August 2009.

According to a Ministry of Labour investigation, the accident occurred at a Mississauga Metro store on Erin Mills Parkway. The young worker, a CAW member, had only been on the job for about three weeks when he was told to remove a box that had been stored on top of a drop ceiling. When the worker climbed up a ladder and stepped onto the ceiling, he fell through and suffered a fatal head injury.

According to statistics from the government of Ontario, each year more than 10,000 workers under the age of 25 are injured on the job and are unable to return to work the next day.

The head of the Canadian Auto Workers, Canada’s largest private sector union, is sending out a warning to everyone that a large number of the country’s youngest workers are being asked to work in unsafe conditions. Not only that, but young workers often have no idea of their rights, including the right to refuse unsafe work, according to CAW president Ken Lewenza.

The warning comes in the wake of a $350,000 fine levied last week against retail grocer Metro Ontario for an Occupational Health and Safety Act violation that caused the death of a 17-year-old worker back in August 2009.

According to a Ministry of Labour investigation, the accident occurred at a Mississauga Metro store on Erin Mills Parkway. The young worker, a CAW member, had only been on the job for about three weeks when he was told to remove a box that had been stored on top of a drop ceiling. When the worker climbed up a ladder and stepped onto the ceiling, he fell through and suffered a fatal head injury.

According to statistics from the government of Ontario, each year more than 10,000 workers under the age of 25 are injured on the job and are unable to return to work the next day.

On March 7, Contractor Aecon Construction Group Inc. was hit with a fine of $225,000 as a result of a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, stemming from a September 2008 explosion that killed a homeowner.

Union Gas Ltd. was preparing to provide natural gas service to residential neighborhoods outside of Owen Sound in the summer and fall of 2008, and they contracted Aecon to install natural gas lines. At least one of the homes being serviced had a private propane service on the property, including a storage tank and buried supply lines.

Aecon went to the home to begin installation of the natural gas line, even though the propane line had not been marked and was still in service that morning. As they attempted to install the natural gas line, the blade of an underground plough severed the unmarked propane line, causing the propane to leak through the soil and foundation of the house into the basement.

The next day, one of the homeowners went into the basement and lit a candle, causing the propane that had accumulated in the basement to ignite, resulting in an explosion and fire. The homeowner was blown out of the house and suffered third-degree burns, and died shortly thereafter.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the Aecon supervisor on site was aware of the propane service, but assumed the propane line would not be in the path of the natural gas line. The homeowners had not been present to supervise the location and excavation of the existing service lines.

The company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the owner of the propane service was requested to locate and mark the service prior to the excavation. In addition to the fine, Judge Gary F. Hearn imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The Ontario Ministry of Labor has fined the Corporation of the City of Brampton $75,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a young worker was injured while working at a snow tube hill.

The incident in question occurred as city workers were preparing the tube hill for use by the public on February 20, 2009. It was a daily practice for workers to test the speed of the hill before opening it up to patrons.  In order to test the speed of the escape lane, a young worker sat in a tube and slid down the lane.

On that day, however, the tube slid in the wrong direction, went over the berm and collided with the tow line lifting device.  As a result, the worker suffered broken bones, a punctured lung, spinal fracture and a concussion.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the city failed to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the berm was adequate for the protection of the worker, and the Corporation of the City of Brampton pleaded guilty to the charge.

The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Michael Barnes.  In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. That money is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.