December 23, 2019 11:00 A.M.
Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development
Convicted: Aluminum Window Designs Ltd. (AWD), 440 Hanlon Road, Woodbridge, Ontario, a manufacturer of of commercial and residential aluminum window products.
Location of Workplace: The company’s440 Hanlon Road location in Woodbridge, Ontario.
Description of Offence: A worker received a critical injury while trying to remove a piece of aluminum from a punch press.
Date of Offence: June 28, 2018.
Date of Conviction: December 20, 2019.
Penalty Imposed:
- Following a guilty plea, Aluminum Window Designs Ltd. was fined $90,000 in provincial offences court in Newmarket by Justice of the Peace Rhonda Shousterman; Crown Counsel Terry Wong.
- The court also imposed 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.
Background:
- On June 28, 2018, an AWD worker at the 440 Hanlon Road location was using a punch press to cut pieces of aluminum window frame. A piece of aluminum became stuck in the machine.
- The worker attempted to remove this jammed piece. While pulling at the part, the top die section of the machine moved downwards. The worker suffered critical injuries.
- An inspector from the (then) Ministry of Labour attended at the scene and determined that the punch press was a machine with an exposed moving part that endangered the safety of a worker and was not guarded by a guard or other device that prevented access to the moving part. Specifically, the die section of the punch press was not guarded to prevent worker access.
- Accordingly, AWD failed as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures required by section 24 of Regulation 851 (the Industrial Establishments Regulation) were carried out in a workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- In 2014, the company had been convicted of an offence under the same subsection of the Regulation and was fined $75,000 for that conviction.