Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) is reminding employers to ensure workplaces are safe and that workers are trained to perform their duties safely after a workplace was prosecuted for violations under The Workplace Safety and Health Act.
On Aug. 19, 2014, a University of Manitoba worker suffered serious injuries as a result of a fall into an open pit. Two floor access panels had been removed by workers to facilitate the lowering of a 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) spool of wire to the basement of the Power House Building located at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus. Workers temporarily left the worksite to retrieve the spool that was to be lowered. During that period, another University of Manitoba employee fell 4.4 metres (14.5 feet) through the open hole to the ground below. The employee sustained serious injuries as a result of the fall.
On April 20, 2017, the employer plead guilty to the charge of failing to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare of its workers when they failed to ensure that a guardrail system was in place to protect workers from falling through a floor opening and was ordered to pay $13,000 in fines and surcharges.
When a workplace incident occurs, WSH may conduct an investigation and can recommend prosecution if it is determined that non-compliance to Manitoba’s safety and health laws contributed to the incident having occurred.
