Employer fined $80,000 after worker caught in 'Nip Rolls'

New Brunswick employer AV Terrace Bay Inc, which operates a pulp and paper mill in Terrace Bay, Ont., was fined $80,000 after pleading guilty to a violation that led to a worker injury.

The company was also asked to pay a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge – required by the Provincial Offences Act – to be credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The charge root from a June 25, 2019 incident, when a worker at the mill was in the process of pulling a sheet of pulp and attempting to place it between two rotating rolls – also known as “Nip Rolls” – inside a pulp machine. The worker got caught in the Nip Rolls.

A co-worker was able to activate the emergency stop, freeing the worker. However, the worker still sustained injuries.

“The rotating Nip Rolls on the pulp machine constituted an in-running nip hazard which should have been equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevented access to the pinch point,” according to the Ontario government. “The absence of such a guard or other device was contrary to section 25 of Ontario Regulation 851 R.R.O. 1990, as amended (the Regulation for Industrial Establishments) and to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.”

AV Terrace bay failed to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by section 25 of Ontario Regulation 851 R.R.O. 1990, as amended, were carried out. This is contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O 1990, c.O.1, as amended, according to the government.

Previously, Manitoba-based Canadian Tool & Die Ltd. was fined $12,500 for violations of The Workplace Safety and Health Act that led to one worker amputating two fingers.

Also, Ontario employer Schindler Elevator Corporation was fined $60,000 after pleading guilty to a violation that resulted in an injury on one worker.