No training procedures or preparations were in place; confusion over responsibility
An Alberta company must pay more than $100,000 in fines after a worker fell through an unprotected opening at an industrial salvage site and was seriously injured.
Clearway Recycling was an Edmonton-based scrap metal salvage company. In August 2008, the company was salvaging materials from a derelict former industrial plant in Edmonton. Clearway used several contract workers on the site to salvage metal.
One worker at the site was employed by Clearway on a temporary basis through a contract with a staffing service. He started work at the site without safety training on Aug. 13, 2008. He was given basic work gear and told to “keep his eyes open, keep away from the torches, and be careful” when he pushed metal piping off the edge of the raised areas.
On his second day of work, Aug. 15, the worker was clearing metal on the second floor when he fell out of a hole in the exterior wall of the building. There was no barrier or safety markings around the hole — which was at least eight feet wide and six feet high — and the worker fell about three metres onto a pile of pipe sections. He broke his legs and ribs, spending two weeks in the hospital before recovering.
It was discovered that in addition to not providing any safety training to the worker, Clearway had no safety plans, safety documentation, hazard assessment, emergency response plan or fall protection procedure for the site in question or any of its other work sites. After the worker fell, another employee told him he’d call an ambulance, but the worker said he wanted to go back to the office. There didn’t appear to be a plan on how to handle the situation.
It became evident the owners had not visited the worksite and had no knowledge of health and safety procedures there. Clearway’s safety manager said he had not performed any safety duties at the worksite because he thought the owner of the industrial plant would do so, which it did not.
The Alberta Provincial Court found Clearway showed “disregard as to the health and safety of its employees” which led to the worker’s accident and the poor response. It issued the following fines:
• $50,000 for failing to ensure the health and safety of the worker as far as it was “reasonably practicable”
• $15,000 for failing to assess the worksite and identifying potential hazards before work began
• $5,000 for failing to prepare a written hazard assessment report
• $20,000 for failing to establish an emergency response plan for an emergency requiring rescues or evacuation
• $10,000 for failing to develop a fall protection plan at a worksite where a worker could fall three metres or more.
Added to the $100,000 in fines was a $15,000 mandatory provincial victim surcharge.
