It will also pay a 25% victim fine surcharge
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (Maple Leaf), a prepared meats and poultry producer based in Mississauga, was fined $170,000 following a workplace incident resulting to a critical injury.
The offence was in violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), which is an act that promoted the occupational health and safety of employees and the prevention of workplace injuries as well as occupational diseases.
The incident occurred on January 19, 2022, when an apprentice millwright that was employed by a third-party company conducted maintenance and repair work on a freezer’s malfunctioning process fans at the company’s Brantford facility.
While investigating the malfunctioning parts, the worker sustained a critical injury. According to the interview conducted by an inspector from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, the worker did not know how to properly lock out the fans to make sure they were not operational.
It was found that it was impossible for the worker to lock out the fan even if he knew that how to do so as a secondary electrical panel that was needed to be switched off was broken at the time.
The incident meant that Maple Leaf Foods failed to ensure that the machine was repaired only when the motion that may endanger a worker was stopped and/or blocked, which was outlined by Section 75 of Ontario Regulation 851 and was contrary to the Section 25(1)(c) of the OHSA.
Maple Leaf pleaded guilty to the Provincial Offences Court and will be paying a 25% victim fine surcharge in accordance with the Provincial Offences Act on top of its fine. The surcharge will be credited to a special provincial government fund that assisted victims of crime.
The penalty was imposed by Justice of the Peace Robert Munro with Katie Krafchick as crown counsel.
