Mine contracting and engineering company fined $110,000 for workplace injury
A Toronto-based mine contracting and engineering company has been fined $110,000 for its role in a workplace incident that saw a worker sustain injuries after a fall of more than four metres.
Cementation Canada Inc. which operates out of Bay Street in Toronto, and has offices in North Bay and Sudbury, entered a guilty plea to charges relating to violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in the Ontario Court of Justice. In addition to the fine, the company will pay a 25-percent victim-fine surcharge.
The incident in question occurred in January 2021.
A worker employed by Cementation Canada Inc. was working at the Young Davidson Mine near Matachewan.
The worker was working on a raise climber nest, which is a work platform used to blast and drill a large tunnel or opening that is mined upward. The worker was washing this equipment when they fell through an opening designed to allow the climber to leave the nest. The worker suffered multiple injuries after falling 4.09 metres to the ground.
Although the worker was wearing a full body harness, they were not tied to the fall protection system at the time of the incident.
Ontario Regulation 854: Mines and Mining Plants holds that a fall-arrest system must be used to protect any worker exposed to a fall greater than three metres.