Worker placed hand on moving drive belt, drawing hand into pinch point
Rex Pak, a food blending and packaging co-manufacturer, has been fined $60,000 and Denise Sabatini, a director of the company, has been fined $3,500. The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act.
On Feb. 24, 2017, a worker received a permanent injury while assessing a sugar-filling line at the company's industrial facility in Toronto.
On the date in question, the worker did not turn off the agitator which was attached to the hopper for the sugar-filling line before moving the temporary perimeter fence.
The worker placed a hand on a moving drive belt which drew the hand into a pinch point between the drive belt and the agitator pulley and caused the injury.
Section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act provides that an employer shall ensure that measures and procedures prescribed are carried out in a workplace.
Ontario Regulation 851 (the Industrial Establishments Regulation), section 25 states "an in-running nip hazard of any part of a machine, device or thing that may endanger the safety of any worker shall be equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevents access to the pinch point."
Rex Pak failed to adequately ensure that measures and procedures were taken to avoid an in-running nip hazard for the worker in accordance with the act and regulation.
Sabatini, one of the company directors, was charged under section 32(a) of the act with failing as a director/officer of the company to take reasonable care between December 2016 and February 24, 2017 to ensure that Rex Pak complied with section 25 of the regulation.
Sabatini did not ensure that all reasonable steps were taken to protect the worker from a pinch point on a workplace machine.
Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour
