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Penalties - Service Sector
Disclaimer: Revised November 2010
Administrative penalties are fines imposed on employers for health and safety violations of the Workers Compensation Act and/or the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. The penalties--listed under the industry sectors below--show the date the penalty was imposed and the location where the violation occurred (not necessarily the business location). The registered business name is given as well as any "doing business as" (DBA) name.
The penalty amount is based on the nature of the violation, the employer's compliance history, and the employer's assessable payroll. Once a penalty is imposed, the employer has 90 days to appeal to the Review Division of WorkSafeBC. The Review Division may increase, maintain, reduce, or withdraw the penalty. Employers may then file an appeal within 30 days of the Review Division's decision to the Workers' Compensation Appeal Tribunal, an independent appeal body.
Listed under the industry sectors below, the fines indicate the penalties imposed prior to appeal, and they may not reflect the final penalty amount.
Service Sector
Archive - Prior Penalties
Recent Penalties
Company: McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd. / McDonalds Hamburgers, Surrey 
Classification unit: Restaurant or other dining establishment
Amount: $15,000
Date of penalty: September 15, 2011
This firm repeatedly violated different sections of the health and safety regulation, including the requirement to provide its workers with the information, training, and supervision needed to ensure their safety. For example, a worker who was not trained in the proper procedures cleaned up blood without wearing gloves. The firm also failed to train all its workers in how to respond to violent incidents and robberies. Further, it failed to post and keep posted reports of recent joint health and safety committee meetings, and to immediately undertake an accident investigation when a worker required medical attention. In addition, it failed to maintain, in a form acceptable to WorkSafeBC, up-to-date written first-aid records, or current safety information about a hazardous product stored on site. These are only some of this firm's repeated violations.
Prior Penalties in Date Order
Company: HT-Vancouver Inc. & 319168 Ontario Limited / Hyatt Regency Vancouver, Vancouver
Classification unit: Hotel
Amount: $75,000
Date of penalty: July 29, 2011
A worker who was cleaning the glass of an overhead canopy at this firm's hotel suffered fatal injuries after falling about 5 m (17 ft.) onto the sidewalk below. The worker was not using fall protection. As the owner and prime contractor of a multiple-employer workplace, the firm failed to do everything reasonably practicable to establish and maintain a system or process to ensure compliance with the Workers Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. A follow-up inspection found that the firm was still not in compliance with its obligations as a prime contractor. This follow-up also determined that the firm had failed to provide workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety, and had failed to comply with the requirements for fall protection, fall protection plans, and work platforms.
Company: Abest Auto Sales Inc., Surrey
Classification unit: Auto dealership or auto sales
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: July 22, 2011
This firm knowingly provided a WorkSafeBC officer with false information about the results of a hazardous materials report identifying asbestos-containing materials in two houses slated for demolition. This was a violation of the requirement to provide WorkSafeBC officers with information needed in the course of their duties.
Company: Davey Tree Expert Co. of Canada Limited, North Vancouver
Classification unit: Tree services
Amount: $72,541.21
Date of penalty: July 20, 2011
This firm's worker, from a boom lift, cut off the top of a tree, which caught fire after landing on an overhead high-voltage power line. The firm failed to provide the supervision and instruction required to ensure safety while working close to high-voltage power lines. Three of the firm's workers were exposed to a high risk of serious injury. This was a repeated violation.
Company: Arrow Marine Services Ltd., Richmond
Classification unit: Structural repair of marine pleasure craft
Amount: $79,286.27
Date of penalty: July 15, 2011
This firm's worker suffered serious burns when a flash fire occurred during painting activities within a confined space at the workplace. The worker was spraying primer in the enclosed steering compartment of a tugboat. The firm failed to provide the worker with adequate information, instruction, training, and supervision to ensure his safety while using a flammable product in a confined space.
About a week after the above incident, WorkSafeBC became aware that welding work was again being conducted inside a confined space on site. A WorkSafeBC officer observed an oxyacetylene torch as well as a portable radio or stereo in the space, both of which created the potential for explosion or fire. The firm's violations included the lack of a safety watch, rescue system, and fire suppression equipment.
Company: Vancouver Island Health Authority, Victoria
Classification unit: Community health support services
Amount: $97,500
Date of penalty: July 8, 2011
Three incidents of violence occurred at three of this employer's workplaces over the course of about eight months. In each incident, patients assaulted workers. The first assault occurred at a mental health facility, where the patient assaulted one worker and attempted to assault another. Several months later, the patient was discharged to a residential care facility (despite criteria disallowing patients with histories of recent violence) and assaulted a worker there. In the third incident, another patient in a hospital's psychiatric unit fired a pellet gun, striking three workers. That patient had been allowed to leave the hospital grounds on several occasions. However, he was not searched for weapons each time he returned.
Both patients had a history of violence and presented a risk of violence to workers, but that information was not communicated to workers. In addition, this employer failed to develop effective policies, procedures, and work arrangements to eliminate or minimize the risk of violence at the workplace, particularly in the areas of identifying patients for risk of violence, weapons searches, and the application of restraints. The level of training and instruction in violence prevention was also inadequate. These were high-risk violations and, in some cases, repeated violations, indicating a failure of the employer to ensure the health and safety of workers.
Company: Brinkman and Associates Reforestation Ltd., New Westminster
Classification unit: Forest management services
Amount: $38,683.58
Date of penalty: June 20, 2011
This firm's worker was fatally struck by a windfall tree that slid downhill after he had bucked the top of the tree. The firm failed to provide the workers who were falling and bucking trees at the worksite with information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure safety. The firm did not provide information, instruction, and training on assessing hazards such as windfall trees. It did not provide safe work procedures for bucking activities, even though these are required by regulation. The firm also failed to provide adequate supervision to ensure worker health and safety: specifically, the firm neither assessed not audited the worker's falling and bucking practices.
Company: Valley Geotechnical Engineering Services Ltd., North Vancouver
Classification unit: Consulting engineering
Amount: $10,500
Date of penalty: June 10, 2011
This firm's worker and another worker were working in an excavation about 5.5 m (18 ft.) deep. The excavation was subject to vibration, and some of its faces were nearly vertical. The firm failed to ensure that written instructions certified by a qualified registered professional were available on site, as required, before allowing work to be performed within the excavation. WorkSafeBC imposed a penalty on this firm because of the high risk of serious injury or death in the event of an excavation collapse and because of the firm's history of similar violations.
Company: BC Hydro & Power Authority, Quesnel
Classification unit: Electric utilities
Amount: $75,000
Date of penalty: May 27, 2011
This firm failed to submit an acceptable notice of compliance to address safety violations. Specifically, the firm's notice of compliance failed to identify any actions for implementing new processes or enhancing existing ones. New or enhanced processes were required to ensure that workers could safely use equipment based on appropriate operating procedures. Such processes were also required to ensure an adequate assessment of slopes and tree size as well as to ensure that the prime contractor effectively coordinates work to ensure the health and safety of all employers at the worksite.
Company: Quality Insertions Ltd., Port Coquitlam
Classification unit: Bindery
Amount: $38,460.08
Date of penalty: May 19, 2011
This firm's worker injured an arm after reaching into an energized paper folding machine to remove an obstruction. The firm failed to provide the worker with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure safety.
Company: Nu-Brite Industries Inc., Surrey>
Classification unit: Auto service or repair
Amount: $21,094.42
Date of penalty: May 16, 2011
This firm's worker suffered serious injuries when the pipe he was hand-polishing on a metal lathe struck him repeatedly after it began to wobble while rotating at high speed. The firm failed to provide supervision required to ensure his safety while operating the metal lathe.
Company: L.S. Gutter Tech Ltd., White Rock
Classification unit: Window, gutter, or awning cleaning
Amount: $3,598.86
Date of penalty: May 4, 2011
This firm's worker was fatally injured when the section of gutter he was carrying contacted an overhead power line. The firm failed to determine the voltage of the nearby power lines or the distance to be maintained from them to ensure the safety of the work of installing gutters. It failed to provide its workers with the instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their safety. In addition, the firm's two young workers did not receive an orientation as required regarding the specific hazards at the worksite. These violations, as well as additional related ones, resulted in a worker's death.
Company: North Shore Home Services Ltd., North Vancouver
Classification unit: Window, gutter, or awning cleaning
Amount: $3,102.56
Date of penalty: April 29, 2011
Two of this firm's workers were working without fall protection on a sloped roof more than 7 m (24 ft.) above grade. The firm failed to ensure that the workers used fall protection as required. This was a repeated violation.
Company: Burnaby Engineering Associates Ltd., North Vancouver
Classification unit: Consulting engineering
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: April 28, 2011
This firm failed to comply with WorkSafeBC orders issued as a result of several occupational health and safety violations. For example, the firm did not implement an exposure control plan before collecting samples for a hazardous material survey of a building to be demolished. As a result, workers may have been exposed to harmful airborne asbestos fibres. In addition, the firm's report on hazardous materials did not follow guidelines acceptable to WorkSafeBC.
Company: Burnaby Engineering Associates Ltd., North Vancouver
Classification unit: Consulting engineering
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: April 28, 2011
This firm did not implement an adequate exposure control plan before collecting samples for a hazardous material survey of a building to be demolished. As a result, workers may have been exposed to harmful airborne asbestos fibres. The firm also failed to use occupational hygiene methods acceptable to WorkSafeBC when preparing the survey. In addition, the report on hazardous materials it issued did not follow guidelines acceptable to WorkSafeBC. These were all repeated violations.
Company: Arsara Diesel Truck Repairs Ltd., Surrey
Classification unit: Heavy equipment, machinery, or parts sales, service, or repair
Amount: $2,596.20
Date of penalty: April 28, 2011
This firm failed to comply with two WorkSafeBC orders issued as a result of safety violations at its worksite. The firm failed to install guardrails on a mezzanine about 3 m (10 ft.) above grade. It also failed to determine the load rating for a portable gantry crane and to indicate as required the rated capacity on the crane's superstructure.
Company: Burnaby Engineering Associates Ltd., Vancouver
Classification unit: Consulting engineering
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: April 28, 2011
This firm failed to follow methods acceptable to WorkSafeBC for developing a hazardous materials survey report. It did not, for instance, include samples of roofing and stucco materials as part of the pre-demolition survey.
Company: Nacel Properties Ltd., Vancouver
Classification unit: Building management, building rental, or mobile home parks and strata corporations
Amount: $44,332
Date of penalty: April 27, 2011
This firm's worker was exposed to the risk of falling about 9 m (30 ft.) to a concrete driveway. He was repairing a fourth-floor balcony without using fall protection. The firm failed to ensure that the worker used fall protection as required. This was a repeated violation of the fall protection requirements as well as the requirement to provide workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their safety.
Company: PH Contractors Ltd., Surrey
Classification unit: Septic tank, sewer, or sewage disposal system services
Amount: $4,036.45
Date of penalty: April 7, 2011
This employer allowed workers to enter an excavation about 3 m (9 ft.) deep without first ensuring that its sides were sloped or supported as required. This was a high-risk violation.
Company: Falcon Equipment Ltd., Fort Nelson
Classification unit: Heavy equipment, machinery, or parts sales, service, or repair
Amount: $60,788.17
Date of penalty: March 11, 2011
The articulated boom crane mounted on a truck supplied by this firm displayed a decal indicating that the crane had been tested for stability. However, the serial number on the decal did not match the crane's serial number. This was a repeated violation of the requirement to provide stability certification for cranes.
Company: D.E.R. Resorts Ltd., Campbell River
Classification unit: Cabin, cottage, lodge, resort, or other overnight rental accommodation
Amount: $8,540.20
Date of penalty: March 8, 2011
This firm's worker sustained serious head injuries after falling from the open box at the back of a pickup truck in which she had been riding unrestrained. The firm failed to provide safe procedures or supervision and training for transporting workers and materials.
Company: New Mountain Stones Ltd., New Westminster
Classification unit: Heavy equipment or machinery rental
Amount: $13,837.59
Date of penalty: February 28, 2011
This firm allowed tools to be modified and used contrary to the manufacturer's specifications. These were repeated violations of the requirement to ensure that any modifications of tools or equipment follow all the relevant safety requirements. The firm also failed to adequately instruct, educate, train, and supervise workers in the safe use of tools.
Company: New Mountain Stones Ltd., New Westminster
Classification unit: Heavy equipment or machinery rental
Amount: $13,837.59
Date of penalty: February 28, 2011
This firm allowed tools to be modified and used contrary to the manufacturer's specifications. These were repeated violations of the requirement to ensure that any modifications of tools or equipment follow all the relevant safety requirements. The firm also failed to adequately instruct, educate, train, and supervise workers in the safe use of tools.
Company: School District No. 82 Coast Mountains, Terrace
Classification unit: Public school district
Amount: $52,500
Date of penalty: January 27, 2011
This employer's workers removed asbestos-containing building materials from a school without following the proper procedures to prevent exposure to hazardous asbestos dust. The employer failed to implement a site-specific exposure control plan to ensure that the hazardous materials were safely contained and removed.
Company: Vic Van Isle Construction Ltd., Revelstoke
Classification unit: Heavy equipment, machinery, or parts sales, service, or repair
Amount: $68,714.73
Date of penalty: December 22, 2010
Three of this firm's workers entered an unsafe excavation more than 1.2 m (4 ft.) deep. The excavation's sides had not been adequately sloped or shored, and there was no safe means of entering or exiting the excavation. In addition, an engineer's certificate for the excavation was not readily available at the worksite as required.
Company: Can-Dive Construction Ltd., Hudson's Hope
Classification unit: Commercial diving
Amount: $8,626.73
Date of penalty: December 22, 2010
This firm failed to meet several of the safety requirements for a planned diving operation to locate log-boom anchors at a depth of about 55 to 76 m (180 to 250 ft.) on the bottom of a reservoir. For example, it failed to ensure that a decompression chamber met the manufacturer's specifications and other applicable standards. It did not ensure that dive helmets and related equipment were inspected and maintained as required. The firm also failed to ensure that the air supplied for diving operations was tested at least once a year.
Company: Skylite Building Maintenance Ltd., Burnaby
Classification unit: Commercial cleaning or janitorial services
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: December 17, 2010
This firm's workers were removing asbestos-containing materials from a building that was being demolished without following the proper procedures. The firm failed to implement a site-specific exposure control plan to ensure that the hazardous materials were safely contained and removed. For example, workers did not have access to a safe area for changing into protective clothing and for disposing of asbestos-contaminated clothing. The firm also failed to fit test workers to ensure that their respirators provided an effective seal against airborne asbestos fibres. It also failed to train and supervise its workers in safe asbestos removal procedures.
Company: Joliet Enterprises Ltd., Kamloops
Classification unit: Auto service or repair
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: November 4, 2010
This employer failed to comply with an order requiring it to submit a written compliance report detailing the steps it was taking to address safety issues observed at its worksite.
Company: Dunsmuir Apartments Ltd., Esquimalt
Classification unit: Building management, building rental, or mobile home parks and strata corporations
Amount: $4,500
Date of penalty: November 2, 2010
This firm began repairing the water-damaged floor of an apartment building without first identifying asbestos-containing materials that would be disturbed or removed by the repairs. It also failed to ensure that its workers were adequately protected from the potential exposure to asbestos fibres when removing the asbestos-containing material and that an inventory of all asbestos-containing materials in the building was prepared and kept current.
Company: 603212 B.C. Ltd. / DKS Industries, Campbell River
Classification unit: Heavy equipment, machinery, or parts sales, service, or repair
Amount: $9,398.43
Date of penalty: October 12, 2010
This firm failed to provide a first aid attendant with a valid certificate at its steel fabrication facility. It also failed to prepare several incident investigation reports, to provide a new worker with an orientation, to ensure that hand grinders have the required guards, and to provide annual hearing tests. The firm's failure to prepare incident investigation reports as well as its failure to ensure that there was someone on site with a valid first aid certificate were repeated violations of the Workers Compensation Act.
Company: Teck Metals Ltd., Richmond
Classification unit: Mining engineering
Amount: $75,000
Date of penalty: June 10, 2010
This employer's worker was transferring an industrial solution from one large tank to another. Each tank contained a rotating shaft and an impeller with four blades that was neither turned off nor locked out. The hose the worker was using to perform the transfer became entangled in one tank's impeller and began to wrap around the shaft, pulling the worker's hand in between the hose and the shaft. Four of the worker's fingers were severed. The employer failed to ensure that the energy-isolating device was locked out and that the rotating parts were guarded. It also failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety.
Company: Diveco Marine Ltd., Klemtu/Bella Bella
Classification unit: Commercial diving
Amount: $100,000
Date of penalty: June 3, 2010
This firm's worker was fatally injured while diving to recover dead fish from a fish farm pen. As he ascended rapidly to the surface from a depth of 31.5 m (103 ft.), he experienced an air embolism, then lost consciousness and drowned. A WorkSafeBC investigation found that this firm did not have adequate safety procedures for diving operations. It failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety.
Company: Davey Tree Expert Co. of Canada Limited, North Vancouver
Classification unit: Tree services
Amount: $89,808.02
Date of penalty: May 31, 2010
This firm failed on numerous occasions to adequately train, instruct, and supervise its workers to fall trees safely. In one incident, the firm's worker was in the process of cutting down a tree. Part of the tree trunk split off and struck the worker, who suffered serious injuries, including the loss of an eye. The worker's supervisor did not ensure that the worker used safe falling methods.
Company: Harsco Canada Limited, New Westminster
Classification unit: Heavy equipment or machinery rental
Amount: $12,238.65
Date of penalty: May 31, 2010
This firm failed to supply temporary framework (falsework) equipment that was in good working condition. The falsework collapsed at the construction site where it was installed by another firm's worker. The worker was fatally injured as a result.
Company: The Wildlife Park Society of B.C., Kamloops
Classification unit: Private park, garden, or zoo
Amount: $5,997.29
Date of penalty: March 30, 2010
This employer failed to establish a written respiratory protection program for workers who must wear respiratory equipment to protect them from airborne viruses and chemicals. It also failed to comply with orders within a reasonable time.
Company: Bhupinder Chahal BC Hazmat Inspections Ltd., Coquitlam
Classification unit: Building or home inspection
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: March 12, 2010
This firm repeatedly provided clearance certificates indicating that hazardous materials had been safely removed when it did not know who had removed the materials or how the work had been carried out. It did not conduct any sampling to confirm that the worksite was free of asbestos contamination before certifying that it was safe for workers to enter.
Company: 221633 B.C. Ltd., (dba Boyd Aggra Wash), New Westminster
Classification unit: Steam cleaning, sandblasting, or pressure washing of heavy equipment
Amount: $2,625.72
Date of penalty: February 23, 2010
This firm has failed to comply within a reasonable time with multiple WorkSafeBC orders issued under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation and the Workers Compensation Act. One of its workers was seriously injured after being struck by heavy mobile equipment (used in road construction) that was being placed in a shipping container. The equipment, suspended from hoisting chains attached to the forks of a class 7 rough-terrain forklift, shifted while being moved. The firm failed to provide workers with adequate information, supervision, training, and instruction.
Company: D. John Snowdon & Candice Snowdon, Chilliwack
Classification unit: Commercial cleaning or janitorial services
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: February 17, 2010
Two of this firm's workers were on a roof more than 10 m (33 ft.) above grade, cleaning the gutters. They were not using any form of fall protection. The firm failed to provide a fall protection system for work done where workers are not protected by permanent guardrails and where a fall of 7.5 m (25 ft.) or more could occur. It also failed to submit a written report outlining the steps it was taking to comply with the fall protection requirements.
Company: Fountain Tire (Dawson Creek) Ltd., Dawson Creek
Classification unit: Auto service or repair
Amount: $8,721.43
Date of penalty: February 5, 2010
A young worker suffered severe crushing injuries when the front-end loader he was working under dropped onto him. The loader had not been securely blocked against inadvertent movement. This firm failed to provide the worker with adequate information, instruction, training, and supervision to ensure his health and safety.
Company: 0758148 B.C. Ltd., Fort St. John
Classification unit: Auto service or repair
Amount: $7,261.95
Date of penalty: January 28, 2010
This firm failed to comply with a WorkSafeBC order within a reasonable time. After it took discriminatory action against a worker for raising safety concerns, the firm failed to provide the remedies ordered by WorkSafeBC.
Company: B & G Power Systems Ltd., Coquitlam
Classification unit: Electric utilities
Amount: $9,852.14
Date of penalty: January 15, 2010
A worker positioned a boom within the limits of approach of a live high-voltage electrical power line, causing an electrical arc between the boom and the line. A worker on the ground suffered serious burns as a result. This employer failed to prevent the boom from coming within the minimum distance of the energized high-voltage line. Further, it failed to keep inspection and maintenance records for the boom truck and failed to inspect the boom truck at least once every 12 months. This employer also failed to provide workers with the instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure the health and safety of those workers in carrying out their work and to ensure the health and safety of other workers at the workplace.
Company: Salvation Army, Mission
Classification unit: Alcohol or drug treatment centre
Amount: $28,946.32
Date of penalty: January 13, 2010
This firm failed to investigate a worker's suspicion that the mechanical room contained loose asbestos. A lab inspection confirmed that samples of the material contained asbestos. The firm failed to take the necessary corrective action without delay, and did not conduct a risk assessment on the material. The firm also failed to maintain an adequate health and safety program, and failed to provide its workers with adequate information, instruction, training, and supervision to ensure the health and safety of workers.
Company: Granisle Entertainment Co. Ltd., Richmond
Classification unit: Cabin, cottage, lodge, resort, or other overnight rental accommodation
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: August 31, 2009
This firm violated the fall protection requirements for work done more than 4 m (14 ft.) above grade.
Company: Landtec Ground Experts Ltd., Abbotsford
Classification unit: Lawn maintenance, garden maintenance, or weed control
Amount: $3,500
Date of penalty: August 12, 2009
Two of this firm's workers were in an excavation about 3 to 3.5 m (9 to 11 ft.) deep. The excavation was unshored and unsloped, and a professional engineer had not inspected it. The firm's president obstructed WorkSafeBC's investigation by refusing to speak to the WorkSafeBC officer and by leaving the site while being questioned. When he returned, he denied that the workers on site belonged to his firm.
Company: Metro Waste Paper Recovery Inc., Surrey
Classification unit: Paper shredding
Amount: $48,743
Date of penalty: August 6, 2009
This employer impeded or dissuaded a worker from reporting an injury and establishing a claim for compensation with WorkSafeBC.
Classification unit: Retirement home or seniors' home
Amount: $6,121
Date of penalty: July 8, 2009
This firm showed repeated non-compliance with orders requiring a less formal health and safety program, a first aid record, a risk assessment on workplace violence, and the identification of hazards for workers working alone.
Company: Massullo Holdings Ltd., Coquitlam
Classification unit: Heavy equipment or machinery rental
Amount: $20,832.04
Date of penalty: June 11, 2009
One of this firm's workers was fatally injured when a forklift tipped over onto him. The forklift, stuck in soft ground beside a sloped road, tipped over when the worker and one of the firm's owners tried to tow it onto the roadway. The firm failed to ensure that the worker was adequately trained in forklift operations, and it knowingly allowed the forklift to be used in an unsafe manner.
Company: Equitex Realty Ltd., Victoria
Classification unit: Building management, building rental, or mobile home parks and strata corporations
Amount: $1,000
Date of penalty: March 6, 2009
This employer, a property management company, failed to prepare and maintain an inventory of asbestos-containing materials, potentially exposing workers to asbestos in one of the buildings it manages.
Company: Okim Holdings Ltd., Campbell River
Classification unit: Pub, bar, night club, or lounge
Amount: $3,358
Date of penalty: February 26, 2009
This firm failed repeatedly to 1) provide a quick and unobstructed emergency exit; 2) conduct a violence risk assessment; 3) conduct an assessment of the risk to workers of musculoskeletal injury; 4) ventilate a designated smoking room with a non-recirculating exhaust ventilation system to meet the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation; 5) repair the building envelope to prevent moisture infiltration and mould growth; and 6) investigate the cause of a fire.
Company: Okim Holdings Ltd., Campbell River
Classification unit: Hotel
Amount: $5,397
Date of penalty: February 26, 2009
This firm failed repeatedly to ensure that friable asbestos-containing material was safely removed, enclosed, or encapsulated to prevent the release of airborne asbestos fibres. Specifically, the employer failed to remove a ceiling that contained chrysotile asbestos at levels above 1 percent. Despite knowing about the hazard, the employer permitted workers to use the area directly below the ceiling.
Company: Mayday Cleaning Services Inc., Coquitlam
Classification unit: Commercial cleaning or janitorial services
Amount: $5,261.63
Date of penalty: January 20, 2009
This firm has repeatedly failed to comply with orders. The orders have required an informal occupational health and safety program, a joint health and safety committee, the recording of all reported or treated injuries and exposures to contaminants covered by the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, and the investigation of incidents that resulted in worker injuries requiring medical treatment.
Company: Aztech Environmental Consulting Services Ltd., North Vancouver
Classification unit: Industrial testing
Amount: $1,000
Date of penalty: January 9, 2009
As a consulting firm that specialized in pre-demolition asbestos identification and assessment services, this firm failed to exercise reasonable care in conducting a hazardous asbestos material survey.
Company: Island Lake Resort Group (2003) Inc., Fernie
Classification unit: Cabin, cottage, resort, or overnight rental accommodation (not elsewhere specified)
Amount: $51,900
Date of penalty: December 18, 2008
Fatality. A worker was sent out alone to a remote weather station in the Rocky Mountains near Fernie to check on snow conditions during a high-risk avalanche period. The worker's solo status denied others the means of checking on her well-being during the trip. An avalanche occurred, burying the worker in snow. The worker was not wearing an emergency transceiver, which hampered rescue activities. The worker died from her injuries.
Company: Woodheart Forest Resources Ltd., Campbell River
Classification unit: Building management, building rental, or mobile home parks and strata corporations
Amount: $6,638
Date of penalty: December 4, 2008
The employer, as prime contractor, failed to coordinate work activities, failed to ensure the use of a fall protection system, and failed to ensure the provision of first aid. A third-party worker who had not received an orientation fell through an unguarded opening in the deck of the barge.
Company: Port Kells Truck & Trailer Repairs Ltd., Port Kells
Classification unit: Auto service or repair
Amount: $6,310.08
Date of penalty: December 2, 2008
This firm did not carry out fit testing for respirators to ensure that they form an effective seal with the worker's face. This was a repeated violation of the requirement to test respirators at least once a year.
Company: Mac's Pizza Ltd., Prince George
Classification unit: Restaurant or other dining establishment
Amount: $6,123
Date of penalty: November 12, 2008
This firm failed to comply with an order in a reasonable time. It was issued numerous orders to establish and maintain a joint health and safety committee in the workplace.
Company: Rajmen Enterprises Ltd., Victoria
Classification unit: Window, gutter, or awning cleaning
Amount: $7,776
Date of penalty: November 6, 2008
Two workers were observed conducting window-cleaning activities at the edge of an unguarded balcony at an elevation over 12.2 m (40 ft.). The balcony area was covered with crushed rock, exposing the workers to a rough, uneven surface. Both workers had their backs to the unguarded balcony edge and were not using any effective means of fall protection, although fall protection equipment was available on site.
Company: Donovan Management Ltd., Vancouver
Classification unit: Construction management consulting
Amount: $4,454
Date of penalty: September 3, 2008
This firm failed to accurately locate an underground utility service, which resulted in a worker being exposed to a high risk of serious illness or death. As the prime contractor of this worksite, the firm failed to ensure the coordination of occupational health and safety activities for employers, workers, and other people in the workplace.
Company: Horizon Communications Ltd., Delta
Classification unit: Security alarm system sales, service, installation, and repair or telecommunications, cable TV, or other similar wiring
Amount: $51,178
Date of penalty: February 15, 2008
This firm repeatedly failed to ensure that workers were provided with and were using a fall protection system while working in a boom-mounted work platform.
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