LLOYDMINSTER, Sask. – Husky Oil Operations Limited has been fined $100,000, including a $28,571 surcharge, for its role in an incident in which an employee was seriously injured by a truck on Aug. 24, 2015. A news release from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety stated that the accident had occurred at the Calgary-headquartered corporation’s sand-disposal facility in Lloydminster, Sask., where the worker was hit by a truck that day. In Lloydminster Provincial Court, Husky Oil later pleaded guilty to failing to develop and implement a traffic-control plan to protect workers where there was a traffic hazard other than a public highway, resulting in injury. An additional charge was dropped, and the employer was fined on Sept. 18 of this year. “All workplaces must identify and address potential risks and hazards,” the Ministry stated in the release. “Safety plans must be developed, and all employees must be provided with information and training to work safely.”
Category Archives: Compliance & Enforcement
WorkSafeBC publishes new safety guide for pipeline construction
RICHMOND, B.C. – A new resource from the occupational health and safety authority for British Columbia aims to teach employers, employees and business owners the basic safety requirements in pipeline construction. Available both as a PDF document and as a pamphlet, the Pipeline Construction Inspection Guide details the obligations of owners, employers, contractors, suppliers and workers under the province’s regulatory jurisdiction over pipelines, according to a press release that WorkSafeBC sent out on Sept. 18. The guide also includes a glossary of terms and outlines relevant sections of B.C. workplace safety legislation, as well as the required personal protective equipment for pipeline construction. It deals with the safety requirements of the pre-construction, construction and post-construction phases of a project, from removal of timber and drilling to cleanup. The Pipeline Construction Inspection Guide is available as an info-flip hard copy for $12 from the WorkSafeBC online store, and the PDF version is available for free at https://www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-safety/books-guides/pipeline-construction-inspection-guide?lang=en.
Worker’s arm injury nets substantial fine for Maple Leaf Foods
HAMILTON, Ont. – Maple Leaf Foods Inc. has been fined $120,000, plus the standard victim fine surcharge, for its involvement in an incident in which an employee was injured at the company’s Hannon, Ont. facility on March 23, 2016. That day, the worker was dumping deboned chicken into a processing hopper when a box holding some of the chicken collapsed and the meat became stuck inside the hopper, according to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL). The employee lowered the box and then tried to correct its positioning in the hopper, but the pallet holding the box slid down and injured the worker’s arm. The MOL investigated the incident and found that there had been no safeguards in place to protect the employee and that the chicken had not been moved in a safe way. In the Ontario Court of Justice in Hamilton, Maple Leaf later pleaded guilty to violating section 25(1)(c) of the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act, and Justice of the Peace Kelly Visser imposed the fine on Sept. 11 of this year.
Safety amendment violates rail workers’ privacy rights: Unifor
Canada’s largest private-sector union is warning that a recent amendment to the Canada Transportation Act, which would make locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVR) mandatory on trains, would be a violation of rail employees’ privacy rights and would not improve safety as intended.
A Sept. 11 media release from Unifor charged that Bill C-49, also known as the Transportation Modernization Act, would “constitute a landmark privacy violation.” The union added that the federal government had not provided sufficient evidence that LVVRs would improve upon the black-box data recorders that the rail sector currently uses.
“Recording workers on the job is not a safety tool, it is a surveillance tool,” Unifor national president Jerry Dias said in a press statement. “Managerial digital surveillance in the transportation industry is a dangerous precedent that will eventually spread to other sectors.
“This cannot become the government standard.”
Unifor rail director Bruce Snow said in his own statement that video and audio surveillance on trains would be “an invasive and unnecessary distraction” that might increase the stress and harm the performance of railway employees.
“Our members work onboard, so they have a unique and personal investment in railway safety,” said Snow. “But federal legislation must not furnish employers with surveillance powers outside the scope of public safety.”
Sponsored by federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau, Bill C-49 passed its second reading in the House of Commons on June 19. The proposed law “amends the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act to allow the use or communication of an onboard recording… if that use or communication is expressly authorized under the Aeronautics Act, the National Energy Board Act, the Railway Safety Act or the Canada Shipping Act, 2001,” the bill read.
Last year, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) published a report, Expanding the use of locomotive voice and video recorders in Canada, which concluded that the use of LVVRs on trains could potentially enhance rail safety and investigations of railway accidents. Involving numerous stakeholders in the industry, the study deemed that LVVR recordings would provide valuable information to TSB investigators, as well as help to prevent accidents by identifying and mitigating risks (COHSN, Sept. 20).
Unifor representatives met with senior Transport Canada officials on Sept. 5 to discuss the bill, according to the release. The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities began hearings on Bill C-49 on Sept. 11.
Unifor represents more than 315,000 workers in every major industry across Canada.
Vancouver police conduct mass inspections of commercial vehicles
VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Commercial Vehicle Unit of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) conducted safety inspections of commercial vehicles all over the city from Sept. 12 to 14, with the help of the Provincial Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement team and other local police services. According to a VPD media release, the inspections were part of an ongoing campaign to identify unsafe road vehicles and promote road safety. On Sept. 12, the inspectors examined 75 vehicles at five random locations and found that every one of them had at least one safety violation, while 40 of them met out-of-service criteria, the release noted. A total of $11,761 in fines was issued that day as a result. Among the areas that the inspectors targeted were mechanical deficiencies, load security, bald tires, brakes, windshields, suspension and steering components; they also flagged vehicles that were in a clear state of disrepair for further inspection.
Two Saskatchewan companies fined for lack of proper equipment
REGINA, Sask. – Two employers in Saskatchewan have pleaded guilty to using insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) in unrelated cases. A news release from the province’s Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety stated that Hilltop Construction Ltd., based in Balgonie, had been convicted in Regina Provincial Court for failing to ensure that employees were using a fall-protection system where one could fall at least three metres. The charge stemmed from a workplace inspection last Nov. 18, when an occupational health officer observed workers using no required PPE, according to the Ministry. Hilltop was fined $1,250, plus a $500 surcharge, on Sept. 6; an additional charge was dropped. In the other case, a June 15, 2016 inspection of a worksite of Canora-based employer Graham G. Lamb found that workers were not using the required PPE. Later, in Canora Provincial Court, Lamb was convicted of failing to ensure that employees were using fall-arrest gear and head protection when required. He was fined $2,800, including $800 in surcharges, on Sept. 7 of this year. No workers were injured in either incident, the Ministry stated.
Screamfest gets fine, probation after worker blinded in 2013
CALGARY, Alta. – Screamworks Incorporated, the company behind the annual Halloween attraction Screamfest in Calgary, was recently convicted for an incident in which an employee was permanently blinded by a customer four years ago. The accident occurred during a Zombie Paintball event at the fest on Oct. 12, 2013, according to an undated announcement on the Alberta Labour website. A paying customer shot the worker with a paintball gun and caused irreversible blindness, the announcement read. On July 25 of this year, Screamworks was convicted of failing to handle equipment according to the manufacturer’s specifications, a violation of Section 12(d) of the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Code. Additional charges were dropped, and the company was fined $50,000 and ordered to serve 18 months of corporate probation, Alberta Labour said. Screamfest is Canada’s largest Halloween festival, running from Oct. 13 to 31 this year, according to its Facebook page.
Driver, 47, charged for trying to run down parking officer
TORONTO, Ont. – A 47-year-old Toronto man has been arrested for an incident in which he allegedly attempted to hit a parking enforcement officer with his car. According to a news release from the Toronto Police Service (TPS), a man became verbally aggressive with the parking officer at about 8:25 a.m. on Sept. 8. The officer was in the process of issuing parking tickets to vehicles in the Avenue Road and Cottingham Street area at the time and had asked the suspect to move his vehicle, but the man refused to do so, police said. The suspect then accelerated his vehicle through a school zone at high speed and swerved towards the officer. Later that day, the TPS arrested Mark Hayman, who is facing charges of assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, driving while under suspension and operating a motor vehicle dangerously. Hayman is expected to make a court appearance on the afternoon of Oct. 17, police said.
Workers feel ill during reported “incident” at B.C. shipping terminal
An unspecified incident at Fairview Container Terminal in Prince Rupert, B.C. sent 11 workers to the hospital for precautionary treatment on the morning of Sept. 3 – but all of the parties involved have stressed that the employees are fine.
While few specific details have been released, a press statement from DP World Prince Rupert, the company that runs the shipping terminal, said that employees in a certain area of the container yard had developed symptoms of respiratory and eye irritation. The workers received medical treatment at a local hospital at about 5 a.m. that morning.
“Two [of the employees] were initially kept for observation, and thankfully, all were discharged within hours of their arrival,” DP World said. “We continue to check on their well-being.”
The company added that the worksite had been evacuated and shut down temporarily after the workers had been treated. “Our incident command management team also brought an external industrial hygienist to conduct onsite assessments and air-quality monitoring,” the statement read.
DP World declared the worksite to be safe at 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 4, and normal work operations resumed on the following day.
“Our first priority is the safety and well-being of our employees, the local community and any others who may have been affected,” the company said.
A news release from the Port of Prince Rupert stated that DP World had based its response to the incident on proper emergency procedures.
“There is no inhalation hazard to the community of Prince Rupert, nor [a] hazard to the marine environment, as related to this incident,” the release stated, adding that the Port of Prince Rupert, other port partners and responding agencies were “fully aware of the situation” and supported DP World’s response.
Rob Ashton, president of International Longshore & Warehouse Union Canada, told COHSN that the safety committees with DP World and the union’s Local 505 are investigating the incident. “I believe they’d be looking at it and figuring out ways to prevent anything like this from ever happening again,” he explained, adding that he did not know whether WorkSafeBC is also investigating.
He said that all of the workers affected by the incident were fine as far as he was aware. “If there are any longstanding issues, I don’t know,” said Ashton.
DP World recently completed an expansion project, dubbed “Phase 2 North”, to increase Fairview Container Terminal’s handling capacity from 750,000 to 1.35 million 20-foot equivalent units, or TEU. The terminal upgrade was marked in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 30, according to a media release from the company.
The Fairview Container Terminal was upgraded from a general cargo facility to a container-handling terminal in 2007, according to information from DP World’s website. The terminal is currently North America’s closest major port to Asia.
A leader in global trade specializing in container handling, DP World employs more than 36,500 people in 103 countries.
Labour federation, Radiohead blast justice system for response to 2012 concert fatality
More than five years after a stage collapse killed a drum technician and injured three other workers at a scheduled Radiohead concert in Toronto’s Downsview Park, a judge’s decision to stay oh&s charges against three implicated parties has drawn scorn from the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and the U.K. rock veterans.
British worker Scott Johnson, 33, died in the collapse on June 16, 2012, and the provincial Ministry of Labour laid 13 charges against entertainment company Live Nation, contractor Optex Staging and engineer Domenic Cugliari the following year (COHSN, June 17, 2013).
But the charges were stayed on Sept. 5 of this year, following a mistrial that resulted when the presiding judge, Justice Shaun Nakatsuru, was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court and declared he no longer had jurisdiction over the case.
In her ruling to stay the charges, Justice Ann Nelson explained that numerous delays in trying the case had violated time limits that the Supreme Court of Canada established last year. “After allowing for all of the exceptional circumstances,” she wrote in the 21-page decision, “this case still will have taken too long to complete.”
In a Sept. 6 media release, the OFL expressed “serious concerns” over the decision, with Federation president Scott Buckley expressing shock and sadness in a press statement.
“Our judicial system failed the family of Scott Johnson,” said Buckley.
“Justice delayed is justice denied, [and] our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those workers killed and injured,” he added. “Those workers that survived, their families, and the family of Scott Johnson are today no closer to knowing why this tragedy occurred. That’s an injustice that must be righted.”
Buckley also criticized Justice Nakatsuru’s decision to declare a mistrial in June as “a serious flaw in our judicial system and one that the government needs to address quickly.
“How many cases get declared a mistrial when a judge gets a new appointment?”
A media statement issued by Radiohead on Sept. 8 noted that the band was “appalled” by the decision to stay the charges.
“This is an insult to the memory of Scott Johnson, his parents and our crew,” the group said. “It offers no consolation, closure or assurance that this kind of accident will not happen again.”
Lead singer Thom Yorke had already spoken out about the decision on Sept. 6, when he retweeted a statement by Caribou, the band that had been scheduled to open for Radiohead at the concert.
“(As someone who was standing behind this stage when it collapsed and would have been on it an hour later…) This is complete bulls–t,” the tweet by Caribou read.
“Words utterly fail me,” wrote Yorke.
Because the charges were stayed rather than withdrawn, it may still be possible to revive them before next Sept. 5 if any of the accused parties faces any new charges, according to information from Legal Aid Ontario.