Retailer facing charges after worker injured in fall

Co-Op charged under NFLD OHS Act

Retailer facing charges after worker injured in fall

A retailer in Newfoundland and Labrador is facing charges under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. 

An employee working at the Clarenville Area Consumers Co-Operative Society was seriously injured in a fall in March 2021.

The organization is now accused of four violations and allegedly failed as an employer to:

  • Provide a safe workplace and the necessary equipment, systems and tools that were without risk to workers;
  • Ensure that material and equipment was placed, stacked or stored in a manner that did not constitute a hazard to a worker in the area;
  • Ensure that a workplace or an area in that workplace was not so overcrowded as to cause risk of injury; and
  • Ensure that appropriate fall protection was used where a worker was exposed to a hazard of falling from a work area, to a surface that could cause injury should a fall occur.

The first court appearance was scheduled for March 9th.

Slips, trips, and falls are among the leading causes of workplace accidents and can happen in many different types of work settings.  But there are several prevention methods that can be implemented  and applied in a variety of workplaces.