Worker injured while moving system used to support poured concrete slabs
Ontario employer Bellai Brothers Construction was fined $80,000 after one of its workers was injured in the workplace.
Following a guilty plea in Provincial Offences Court, Ottawa, 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. 5, 2022, when a worker was assisting co-workers with the disassembly of two concrete fly forms. The forms were being used in the construction of an 18-storey building.
The worker was holding one end of a 21-foot hinged wing of the form and a co-worker held the other end while waiting for a shore jack that was supporting the wing to be removed.
The workers planned to hold and lower the hinged wing once the jack was removed.
However, once the shore jack was removed, the hinged wing did not immediately drop. It was stuck in the extended position.
A coworker reached for a pry bar to free the wing, but as they did so, the wing swung downward and injured the worker.
An investigation by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development found that the company failed, as an employer, to ensure that the hinged fly wing was moved in a manner that did not endanger the worker.
“The company failed to ensure the fly form was stored and moved in a manner that did not endanger the worker, as required by section 37(1) of Ontario Regulation 213/91, and contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” said the Ontario government.
Section 37(1) of Ontario Regulation 213/91 states that “material or equipment at a project shall be stored and moved in a manner that does not endanger a worker.”
Meanwhile, section 25(1)(c) of the OHS Act states an employer shall ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed are carried out in the workplace.
