Ontario meat processor fined $50K for worker injury

A meat processing company in Mississauga, Ont. has been fined $50,000 in provincial offences court after pleading guilty to an offence involving a worker injury.

A worker at Erie Meat Products Ltd. was injured after removing interlocking guards from the front of the machine.

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

An investigation by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development showed that on October 12, 2018, a temporary worker was cleaning a hot dog loader/packer machine.

The worker removed the interlocking guards from the front of the machine to clean any excess plastic packaging. This exposed the machine and its pre-heating plate.

As the worker was attempting to remove excess plastic, the machine was actuated and the worker was injured by the machine’s plates. The injured worker was taken to hospital.

The ministry learned that the machine was not locked-out when the injured worker was removing excess plastic from the machine, as required by the Regulation for Industrial Establishments under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Erie Meats committed the offence of failing, as an employer, to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by section 76 of the regulation were carried out in the workplace.