Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development
Convicted: Countrywide Recycling Inc., P.O. Box 370, Binbrook, ON L0R 1C0; a company that provides waste management and recovery services.
Location of Workplace: 900 Nebo Road, Hamilton, ON L0R 1P0
Description of Offence: A worker was fatally injured while performing duties at a recycling facility in Hamilton, ON.
Date of Offence: October 4, 2019
Date of Conviction: June 13, 2022
Penalty Imposed:
- Following a guilty plea in the Ontario Court of Justice, Hamilton, Countrywide Recycling Inc. was fined $100,000 by Judge Amanda Camara; Crown Counsel Shantanu Roy.
- 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 October 4, 2019, a worker at the company’s Hamilton recycling plant was walking from the storage bunkers in the facility toward an area known as the tipping floor.
- The worker was fatally injured when struck by a reversing front-end loader.
- An investigation by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development determined that the company failed to provide barriers, warning signs, or other safeguards for the protection of workers in the tipping floor area.
- This was contrary to section 20 of Ontario Regulation 851, R.R.O. 1990, as amended (the Regulation for Industrial Establishments), which states: “Barriers, warning signs or other safeguards for the protection of all workers in an area shall be used where vehicle or pedestrian traffic may endanger the safety of any worker.”
- It was also contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which states: “An employer shall ensure that, the measures and procedures prescribed are carried out in the workplace.”