Window manufacturer fined $90K for worker injury in second offence

A manufacturer of commercial and residential aluminum window products in Woodbridge, Ontario has been fined $90,000 in provincial court after pleading guilty to a charge involving a worker’s critical injury.

Aluminum Window Designs Ltd. (AWD) also received a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

According to an investigation by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, on June 28, 2018, an AWD worker at the company’s 440 Hanlon Road location was using a punch press to cut pieces of aluminum window frame.

A piece of aluminum became stuck in the machine. The worker attempted to remove this jammed piece. While pulling at the part, the top die section of the machine moved downwards. The worker suffered critical injuries.

An inspector from the ministry attended at the scene and determined that the punch press was a machine with an exposed moving part that endangered the safety of a worker and was not guarded by a guard or other device that prevented access to the moving part. Specifically, the die section of the punch press was not guarded to prevent worker access.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Labour found that AWD failed as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures required by section 24 of the Industrial Establishments Regulation in the Occupational Health and Safety Act were carried out in a workplace.

In 2014, AWD had been convicted of an offence under the same subsection of the regulation and was fined $75,000 for that conviction.