Two Burlington companies have been fined a total of $230,000 in connection with an incident that led to a worker’s death in 2022.

General contractor New Horizon Development Group (Waterdown) Inc. and electrical contractor TKEM Electric Ltd. pled guilty to violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations in a Hamilton court. New Horizon will pay a fine of $130,000, while TKEM Electric will pay $100,000.

The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge that is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

The incident occurred on August 16, 2022 at a commercial-building construction site at 40 Mallard Trail in Hamilton.

An electrician was running wire to the roof of a two-storey building. While on the roof, the worker suffered a fatal fall to the ground below.

The roof had a parapet wall along its perimeter with no temporary fencing or guarding at the roof’s edge. Access to this part of the roof was from a stairwell that was not locked. The stairwell and roof had no signs warning about the fall hazard.

An investigation found that New Horizon had failed to ensure there were warning signs of the fall hazard on the roof. TKEM Electric Ltd. was found to have failed to provide the worker with information, instruction or supervision related to the fall hazard posed by the roof’s edge.