BRAMPTON, Ont. – Four years after a young employee broke an ankle in a workplace accident while driving a forklift, a Concord, Ont.-based meat-packing company has been fined $55,000, plus a victim fine surcharge, for its role in the incident. According to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL), the worker was moving meat with a device called a “walkie forklift” on May 22, 2013 at the Brampton facility of Concord Premium Meats Ltd. The employee collided with material that a co-worker was moving that day, resulting in the injury. The employer was later tried on four charges under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act: failure to keep the floor clear of obstructions and hazards, to protect workers from traffic with barriers or warning signs, to ensure that employees were moving or lifting material in a way that did not endanger others and to provide information, instruction and supervision to protect workers’ safety. Concord was found guilty on all four charges at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton on June 13 of this year, and Justice of the Peace Stephen Budaci passed sentence on Aug. 2. “New and young workers… are more likely to be injured during the first few months on the job than other workers,” the MOL stated in the bulletin, “and are three times more likely to be injured during their first month on the job than at any other time.”