Worker injured after getting caught in pinch point of a machine
Ontario employer Canadian General – Tower Limited – a company that produces polymeric-coated textile fabrics and vinyl films for automotive and industrial applications – has been fined $175,000 after one worker was injured in the workplace.
Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Cambridge, the employer was also tasked to pay a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
The incident happened on Dec. 1, 2022, when workers at an emboss station – where layers of material are combined and embossed onto rolls – noticed a defect mark on the finished product and were trying to determine where the mark was coming from.
A worker entered the emboss station, while the machine was still running, to examine the roller surfaces inside the machine.
While inside the running machine, the worker’s gloved hand was caught between two counter-rotating rollers. These created a pinch point that critically injured the worker.
“Canadian General – Tower Limited failed as an employer to ensure that a worker shall not be exposed to a pinch point on a machine, as required by section 25 of Ontario Regulation 851/90, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” said the Ontario government.
