Manitoba Labour and Immigration is reminding employers to ensure workplaces are safe and employees are provided with the proper procedures to perform their duties. When a workplace incident occurs, Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) investigates and can recommend prosecution if it is determined the employer did not have appropriate safeguards in place or employees had not been properly trained.
On Aug. 27, 2012, a worker for C & C Construction Co. Ltd. suffered a broken femur when the soil surrounding an excavation he was working on in Portage la Prairie collapsed and pinned him against a sewer pipe. On Nov. 17, 2014, the employer pleaded guilty under section 4(1)(a) of The Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act to the charge of failing to ensure the safety, health and welfare of the worker when instructing him to work inside an un-shored excavation. The company was ordered to pay $40,000 in fines and surcharges.
On May 23, 2012, a worker for Cobalt Industries Ltd. in the R.M. of North Cypress was fatally injured on the job when a hand chain hoist he was using to lift an approximately 1,900 lb panel snapped, causing the panel to fall and strike the worker. On Nov. 27, 2014, Cobalt Industries Ltd. pleaded guilty under section 23.2(1) of The Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act Regulation, M.R. 217/2006 for failing to develop and implement safe work procedures respecting the use of hand chain hoists. The company was ordered to pay $62,550 in fines and surcharges.
On May 1, 2012, a worker for Reston-based Williamson Trucking suffered multiple fatal internal injuries when he fell approximately 15 feet off an elevated conveyor belt that he was setting up at the Allen Jones Pit in the Rural Municipality of Pipestone. On Nov. 28, 2014, the employer pleaded guilty under section 4(2)(c) of The Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act to the charge of failing to ensure the worker was trained in the safe work procedures, hazards and precautions associated with the task of moving and setting up the sand screening equipment. The company was ordered to pay $40,000 in fines and surcharges.
On Feb. 3, 2012, a worker for The Manitoba Centennial Centre Corporation was involved in a workplace incident that resulted in serious injury. The worker was retrieving an electrical cable beneath the stage of the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, when he walked behind a curtain and fell approximately 11 feet to the ground below.
On Nov. 6, 2014, the employer pleaded guilty under section 14.2(3)(b) of The Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act Regulation M.R. 217/2006 to the charge of failing to ensure the development of safe work procedures that contained procedures for assembly, maintaining, inspecting, using, and disassembling a guardrail system for fall protection in the “crossover” workplace area where fall hazards exist. The corporation was ordered to pay $5,000 in fines and surcharges. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Inc. had previously been convicted under The Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act and Regulations for the same incident.
On Feb. 27, 2012, a worker for Manitoba Hydro was involved in a workplace incident that resulted in serious injuries. The worker was part of an overhead construction crew working in the R.M. of Springfield. The crew was tasked with replacing overhead electrical lines. While working out of the basket of a bucket truck, an electrical contact occurred when the worker was attempting to secure energized lines to a hydro pole. The worker sustained serious burns to his upper torso.
On Oct. 30, 2014, the employer pleaded guilty under section 25.3(a) of The Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act Regulation, M.R. 217/2006 to the charge of failing to ensure that the work being carried out was done in a manner that prevented contact with overhead electrical lines. Manitoba Hydro was ordered to pay $68,750 in fines and surcharges.
More information on Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) and the Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health Act is available online.
