Employer failed 'to ensure workers were protected from the hazard of a falling stack of fencing'
Quebec employer 7143818 Ontario Inc.—operating as Regional Fence—has been fined $65,000 for injuries sustained by two of its workers.
Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Ottawa, the company was also required to pay a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, as mandated by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
The incident occurred at OC Transpo’s Corkstown Yard Light Maintenance and Storage Facility near Moodie Station on Corkstown Road, Ottawa, on Oct. 5, 2021.
On that day, Regional Fence had been contracted to install fencing in multiple locations along OC Transpo’s light rail system.
Workers were off-loading 24 fence panels from a trailer. The panels were in an upright position, held in place by racks. Each panel weighed 26.7 kilograms.
When workers removed the first two panels from the load, the remaining panels fell forward. Two workers were injured in the incident.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that the company had failed to move the fencing in a manner that did not endanger a worker.
“The company failed, as an employer, to ensure workers were protected from the hazard of a falling stack of fencing, contrary to section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” according to the Ontario government.
Section 25(2)(h) of the OHSA states that an employer shall “take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker”.
