Lack of machine guarding costs Scarborough company $60,000 in fines

Mar. 20, 2018 – Following a guilty plea, Hung Wang Foods Inc. and Fred King-Cheong Fung, a director of the company, were fined $50,000 and $10,000 respectively, after a worker suffered injury while attempting to clear dough that was jammed in a noodle-cutting machine. 

On August 30, 2016, a worker employed as a general labourer by Hung Wang Foods Inc., a company that operates a noodle manufacturing facility, was operating a wonton noodle cutting machine at the company’s Scarborough, Ont., facility.

The wonton noodle cutting machine uses cutting rollers to cut sheets of dough into noodles; bunches of noodles are then cut by rotating cutting paddles. The worker was operating the machine when dough became jammed in the area of the cutting rollers. The worker, in attempting to clear the jam, reached into the machine and made contact with the rotating cutting paddles.

The worker was injured and was taken to hospital for medical treatment.

At the time of the incident, the machine was not equipped with a guard to prevent access to the rotating cutting paddles.

Section 24 of the Industrial Establishments Regulation requires that, where a machine has an exposed moving part that may endanger the safety of any worker, the machine shall be equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevents access to the moving part. As such, Hung Wang Foods Inc. failed as an employer to ensure the cutting machine was equipped with a guard to prevent access to the rotating cutting paddles.

Section 32(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires that every director and every officer of a corporation shall take all reasonable care to ensure that the corporation complies with the act and the regulations.

As such, Fred King-Cheong Fung failed as an officer of Hung Wang Foods Inc. to ensure the corporation complied with section 24 of the Industrial Establishments Regulation. Section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires that an employer shall ensure the measures and procedures prescribed are carried out in the workplace.

The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.