Ontario employer fined $60K for worker injury

Ontario employer Schindler Elevator Corporation was fined $60,000 after pleading guilty to a violation that resulted in an injury on one worker.

The employer must also pay a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act, to be credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The incident took place on June 15, 2019, when a worker employed by Schindler was performing maintenance work in the elevator machine room located at 445 Richmond Rd., Ottawa Ontario, a building owned and operated by Ottawa Community Housing Corporation. The task in question involved lubricating ropes on an elevator.

While performing the task, the worker was wearing gloves while the elevator was in motion. Schindler had a policy instructing workers not to wear gloves around moving machinery. However, the worker was not aware of this policy.

The worker’s hand was subsequently pulled into the in-running nip point created by the elevator’s hoist ropes and sheave, and the worker sustained injuries.

“Section 25(2)(h) of the [Occupational Health and Safety] Act requires an employer to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker,” according to the Ontario government. “Schindler Elevator Corporation failed to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that a worker did not wear gloves while exposed to the hazard of working near moving machinery.”

Previously, Ontario employer Atlas Hydraulics Inc. was fined $60,000 after pleading guilty for contributing to circumstances that led to an injury on one worker.

Also, Manitoba-based Canadian Tool & Die Ltd. was fined $12,500 for violations of The Workplace Safety and Health Act that led to one worker amputating two fingers.