Worker slips while cleaning the hopper – or colour feeder – of a plastic injection molding machine
Ontario employer Ultra Manufacturing Limited has been fined $80,000 after one of its workers sustained serious injuries in the workplace.
The employer was also tasked to 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 happened on March 24, 2022 at a facility in Waterloo that manufactures plastic interior automotive parts, using injection moulding.
The worker was cleaning the hopper – or colour feeder – of the plastic injection moulding machine, so that the colour could be changed.
To do this, the worker needs to open a window on the front of the hopper – which is about eight feet above the ground – using a platform ladder that is usually affixed to the outside of the machine. The cleaning is done using an air gun to blow material out of the hopper.
However, on this particular machine, the ladder was on the opposite side of the machine to where the access window was located.
Because of this, the worker climbed the machine and stood on the side of the machine itself to blow out the hopper. Subsequently, the worker lost balance and slipped to the ground below, sustaining serious injuries.
“Section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act provides that an employer shall take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker at a workplace,” said the Ontatio government.
“Ultra Manufacturing Limited failed, as an employer, to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the platform ladder on the plastic injection molding machine was positioned correctly to allow a worker to clean the hopper safely, contrary to the Act.”
Previously, two Ontario employers were also fined because of injuries to workers.
Peel Meat Packers Ltd. was fined $60,000 after one of its workers was critically injured by a male cattle in the workplace. Meanwhile, Humphrey Fleet Service Inc. was fined $55,000 after one of its workers was injured while the worker was removing and replacing a rear light assembly on a customer’s trailer in one of the company’s repair bays.
