Kubota Materials fined $90,000 for workplace incident
Kubota Materials Canada, a foundry and materials fabricator and supplier of alloy-steel castings and assemblies, has been fined $90,000 in provincial court for its role in a 2021 incident that led to serious injuries to a worker.
The company will also pay a 25-percent surcharge that is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
The incident occurred at Kubota Materials’ workplace on Commerce Road in Orillia.
On October 2, 2021, a worker was operating a Sieving Classifier, a machine used in the process of refining a powdered substance called TXAX, an asbestos alternative used as friction material in brake and clutch components of machines and automobiles.
While operating the machine, the worker noticed it was blocked, as the collection bucket below the rotary valve was not filling with material. The worker attempted to manually clear the blockage at the bottom of the machine, which housed an exposed moving part that was not equipped with a guard. As a result, the worker was seriously injured by the machine’s moving parts.
Kubota Materials Canada Corporation was found to have failed as an employer to ensure that the machine was equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevented access to the exposed moving parts.
As a result, the employer endangered the safety of the worker, thereby violating section 24 of the Regulation for Industrial Establishments, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.