Lack of fall protection, proper guarding among infractions
BC Tree Fruits Industries Limited of Oliver, B.C., has been fined $218,430. This firm, which operates multiple locations, is being penalized as a result of health and safety violations found during two separate inspections at one of its plant locations.
During the first inspection, WorkSafeBC observed two of the firm's workers working on the top of a condenser unit located on the roof of a building. The work conditions had changed since similar tasks were last performed: permanent guardrails had been removed, but the firm had not assessed how work tasks would be affected by these changes.
The workers were not supervised and had not received instructions regarding the use of fall protection for the work area and the safety procedures required prior to accessing the area. The workers were exposed to the risk of falling up to 9.8 metres (32 feet).
During the second inspection, WorkSafeBC observed that the sprocket and chain guards were missing from the bin dumper, and belt drives in the ammonia room were inadequately guarded.
The firm failed to ensure that every gear and chain sprocket was completely enclosed, and failed to adequately guard the in-running nip points of power transmission belts. These were repeated violations, based on similar violations occurring at the firm's other locations. The firm's failure to ensure the use of fall protection was a high-risk violation.
Source: WorkSafeBC
