Manitoba calls on employers to ensure safe workplaces

Mar. 16, 2018 – The Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) branch of Manitoba Growth, Enterprise and Trade is reminding employers to ensure workplaces are safe and workers are adequately supervised to perform their duties, after three employers and a property owner were prosecuted for violations under The Workplace Safety and Health Act.

As a result of these prosecutions, penalties totalling more than $71,000 were ordered by the courts.

Below are details of two industrial workplace incidents:

• On May 21, 2014, a worker with 5187436 Manitoba Ltd. – formerly Clint Moffat & Sons Ltd. – was adjusting a portable, extendable radial stacking conveyor that was malfunctioning due to soft soil conditions. The worker died when he was run over by the portable stacker. In December 2017, the employer pleaded guilty to the charge of failing to ensure the safety, health and welfare of its worker and was ordered to pay $50,050 in fines and surcharges.

• On Feb. 25, 2016, a worker at ProCast Technologies Inc. noted the temperature of a quench tank on a heat-treating system had not reached the required temperature due to an electrical issue.  An electrical contractor was contacted but, before they arrived, the worker and a supervisor checked the voltage in an electrical panel using a voltage meter. The worker touched live electrical wires in the panel with the voltage meter test leads, resulting in burns to the worker’s hands, arms, neck and face. In December 2017, the employer pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that only electrical workers perform electrical work in the workplace and was ordered to pay $14,000 in fines and surcharges.

When a workplace incident occurs, WSH may conduct an investigation and can forward a copy of their findings to Manitoba Justice for review if non-compliance with Manitoba’s safety and health laws were a factor.