Worker injured while repairing a steel coil
Ontario employer Samuel, Son & Co., Limited has been fined $125,000 after one of its workers was injured in the workplace.
Following a guilty plea in the Ontario Court of Justice in Hamilton, the employer was also ordered to pay a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act, which will be credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
The incident happened on Nov. 8, 2023, when a Nelson Steel worker was using electronic control panels to operate a turnstile and down-ender table. The turnstile rotates the steel coils, while the down-ender table lowers them into a horizontal position so they can move along the packaging line on a roller conveyor.
The worker used the control panels to transfer a steel coil from the turnstile to the down-ender table and lower it into the horizontal position.
A nearby worker noticed that the tail of the coil had popped out or become unsecured. This worker entered the area between the turnstile and the down-ender table and leaned over the coil to attempt the repair.
During the repair, the worker at the control panels “inadvertently activated the turnstile pusher, causing a coil to be pushed off the turnstile arm and fall to the ground, injuring the worker performing the repair,” said the Ontario government.
OHSA violation
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that the company “failed as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures as required by section 26 of the Ontario Regulation 851, were carried out at the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” the provincial government noted.
Section 26 of the regulation states that a machine “shall be shielded or guarded so that the product, material being processed or waste stock will not endanger the safety of any worker.”
Meanwhile, section 25(1)(c) of the act states that an employer shall ensure that the “measures and procedures prescribed are carried out in the workplace.”
Following the incident, the company complied with an order requiring the incident area to be shielded or guarded, according to the Ontario government.
