Stelco fined $200,000 in connection with 2022 fatality
Stelco has been fined $200,000 for its role in a 2022 incident that led to a worker’s fatal injuries.
The company entered a guilty plea in provincial court, and will pay a 25% surcharge that is credited to a fund that assists crime victims.
The incident occurred on January 15, 2022, when a Stelco worker was working alone in the coal handling area of the company’s plant in Hamilton and noticed a conveyor belt was slipping off its pulley.
To fix the problem, it is believed the coal handler got a can of belt dressing (adhesion spray) and applied it between the belt and the pulley while the conveyor belt was still moving.
About three hours later, a supervisor entered the work area and noticed the worker had been injured by the conveyor. They immediately called 911 but efforts to resuscitate the worker were unsuccessful.
An investigation by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development revealed the conveyor was in motion without a guard to prevent access to the head end of the machine at the time of the incident.
Stelco Inc. did not ensure there was a means to safely apply belt dressing while the conveyor was in motion, contrary to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Following the incident, the employer improved lone-worker policies and physical machine guarding throughout its operations.