By Sarah Klein
Two Winnipeg businesses have been fined by the province for a fatal workplace accident and an unsafe demolition.
A 45-year-old worker at Western Scrap Metals Inc. was killed on March 23, 2009 when bales of recycling paper fell from a trailer while being unloaded. The employer plead guilty on December 11 of this year to charges of failing to provide the necessary information, instruction, training, supervision and facilities to reasonably ensure the safety, health and welfare at work of all its workers. Western Scrap Metals was fined $72,500.
In the second case, Nat-Al Ltd. was fined $12,500 on December 13 after contracting a building demolition at 123 Regent Avenue East on July 13, 2010. The building was demolished without informing the contractor that the materials contained asbestos.
“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,” the province said in a release.
