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Penalties - Trade
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.
Trade
Recent Penalties
Company: Country Lumber Ltd., Langley 
Classification unit: Home improvement centre
Amount: $46,096.18
Date of penalty: October 18, 2012
This firm's worker was seriously injured when the forklift he was operating tipped over, pinning him underneath it. The worker had been operating the forklift near a shallow excavation where a section of asphalt was under repair. When he turned the forklift, it cut across a corner of the excavated area and tipped. The firm failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision needed to ensure their safety. For example, the firm did not inform its workers about the timing of the asphalt repair work or clearly mark the excavation area. Also, the training of workers who operated forklifts was not current and did not meet the applicable standard. In addition, the firm's supervisors were not informed about their health and safety responsibilities. The firm also failed to ensure that the forklift had a seatbelt and that its worker wore a seatbelt while operating the forklift.
Prior Penalties in Date Order
Company: Cliffview Meat & Sausage Ltd., Vernon
Classification unit: Butcher shop
Amount: $3,250 (administrative penalty), $52,221.94 (claim costs levy)
Date of penalty: August 17, 2012
This firm's young worker received serious injuries to one arm and the fingers of her other hand while cleaning a jammed meat grinder. The firm failed to provide the young worker with adequate information and training on how and when to lock out equipment, and failed to supervise the young worker to ensure that she followed safe procedures when cleaning the grinder. The firm failed to ensure the safety of its young worker. WorkSafeBC imposed an administrative penalty of $3,250 on the firm and a claim costs levy of $52,221.94. WorkSafeBC can impose a claim costs levy on a firm when it regards a worker's injury, disablement, or death to be substantially due to the firm's gross negligence, failure to adopt reasonable prevention steps, or failure to comply with orders or other regulatory requirements. The levy allows WorkSafeBC to recover from the firm all or part of the compensation payable to the worker, up to a maximum of $52,221.94.
Company: McKesson Canada Limited, Coquitlam
Classification unit: Drug, vitamin, pharmaceutical, or beauty aid wholesale
Amount: $72,961.43
Date of penalty: May 14, 2012
This firm directed an untrained and unqualified worker to enter an area where there was a potentially explosive atmosphere in order to shut down a ruptured natural gas line. The firm also failed to control the hazards arising from the rupture by immediately evacuating its workers and notifying emergency services. The worker had to seek medical attention as a result of breathing the natural gas.
Company: Cosmos Furniture Ltd., Delta
Classification unit: Furniture store
Amount: $11,450.80
Date of penalty: March 30, 2012
WorkSafeBC found numerous safety violations at this firm's warehouse. For example, its warehouse was overstocked to the point that workers had to reach, lift, and move furniture while in awkward positions, putting them at risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Fire exits and exit routes were blocked by stored furniture, and the firm failed to conduct the required fire drills and workplace inspections. The firm also failed to ensure there was an adequate working space around circuit breakers and other electrical panels.
Further, the firm repeatedly failed to provide its workers with adequate instruction, training, and supervision. It failed to conduct and document monthly health and safety meetings for its workers and could not provide the required employee training and orientation records. It also failed to ensure that its workers used fall protection and followed the manufacturer's instructions when using machines and equipment, both of which were repeated violations.
Finally, the firm could not provide the required records for workplace injuries and exposures and it failed to investigate a reported injury for which a worker sought medical treatment. The firm's many violations are examples of its repeated failure to ensure the health and safety of workers.
Company: CBVL Robotics Inc., Coquitlam
Classification unit: Electronic equipment or light equipment, machinery, or parts wholesale
Amount: $20,072.89
Date of penalty: July 19, 2011
A worker at this firm's welding shop was welding in an area with no local exhaust ventilation. This was continued non-compliance by the firm with the requirement to ensure that local exhaust ventilation was used at its fixed work locations. The firm also failed to comply with a WorkSafeBC order requiring that its workers be fit-tested for their respirators.
Company: Cosmos Furniture Ltd., Delta
Classification unit: Furniture store
Amount: $5,725.40
Date of penalty: July 11, 2011
This firm failed to ensure the safety of all workers at its worksite and failed to provide them with adequate information, instruction, training, and supervision. On several occasions, the firm allowed one of its workers to access furniture from storage racking about 6 m (20 ft.) above grade without ensuring that the worker used fall protection as required. It also exposed workers to the risk of falling by allowing them to use a lift truck with a work platform mounted on its forks that did not meet the required safety standards. Both the storage racking and the lift truck were repeatedly used contrary to the manufacturer's instructions.
Company: Ray Thouin Enterprises Inc., Vancouver
Classification unit: Clothing, linen, or other textile wholesale
Amount: $10,297.50
Date of penalty: June 15, 2011
A young worker new to the job at this employer's warehouse sustained a serious injury after falling about 4 m (13 ft.) from a lift truck. The worker was using an order selector style of forklift (with an elevating operator's platform) to access boxes on the upper levels of a storage racking system. The employer had introduced a site-built platform for mounting onto the forks of the lift truck. This modification made it possible for operators to step off the operator's platform onto this second platform while working at heights. However, the site-built platform did not meet the safety standards for use as a work platform. In addition, boxes stored on the racking system protruded from the edge. This meant that the order selector had to be positioned between about 30 and 46 cm (12 and 18 in.) away from the racking, requiring the worker to lean out over the gap to access the boxes. The worker was not using any form of fall protection while working from the elevated platforms.
WorkSafeBC issued several orders to the employer for high-risk safety violations relating to the order selector and its operation and the site-built work platform. Orders were also issued relating to the orientation and training of new and young workers. Additional violation orders were issued for the employer's failure to ensure the health and safety of workers, failure to make its workers aware of all known or reasonably forseeable health or safety hazards, and failure to provide the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure the health and safety of workers.
Company: Samuel, Son & Co. Ltd., Langley
Classification unit: Steel or metal wholesale
Amount: $21,198.30
Date of penalty: May 12, 2011
This firm's worker was fatally injured while operating a 544-tonne (600-ton) hydraulic swaging press. The worker was struck by die assemblies that forcibly ejected out of the press. The firm failed to adequately instruct, train, and supervise the worker to ensure his safety in the rigging shop. It also failed to ensure as required that the press was adequately safeguarded.
Company: 7-Eleven Canada Inc., Campbell River
Classification unit: Convenience store, farm market, or specialty food store
Amount: $15,000
Date of penalty: January 7, 2011
Numerous health and safety violations have occurred at this firm's workplace. For example, the firm has failed to ensure that first aid records of worker injuries and exposures are kept on site. It has failed to provide appropriate emergency washing facilities for workers who may be exposed to harmful or corrosive materials. In addition, the firm did not instruct its workers how to report and document incidents of violence at the workplace.
Company: Coast Outdoor Advertising Ltd., Ladysmith
Classification unit: Light industrial equipment, machinery, or power tool rental
Amount: $7,844.35
Date of penalty: January 5, 2011
This firm's worker suffered severe burns and other serious injuries after contacting a live overhead power line with a metal rod and then falling about 8.5 m (28 ft.) off a metal ladder on a billboard platform. The firm allowed work to proceed within the limits of approach of a high-voltage power line in violation of the requirement to maintain the minimum applicable distance between workers and live high-voltage conductors. It failed to ensure that its worker used a fall protection system as required, and it also failed to provide its worker with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure his safety.
Company: 655843 BC Ltd. / Skookum Inn, Windermere
Classification unit: General retail
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: September 7, 2010
This firm repeatedly failed to implement a system of pre-payment for fuel at its rural gas station as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.
Company: Coast Building Supplies Ltd., Port Coquitlam
Classification unit: Lumber, plywood, gyproc, brick, or other similar building material wholesale
Amount: $45,936.92
Date of penalty: July 21, 2010
Two of this firm's workers were unloading drywall on a balcony over 3 m (10 ft.) above grade. They were not using any form of fall protection. This was a repeated violation of the fall protection requirements.
Company: McLaren Distributors Ltd. / Ellison Enterprises, Nelson
Classification unit: General retail
Amount: $6,143.28
Date of penalty: May 7, 2010
This firm's worker was standing close to the unguarded edge of a roof about 3.5 m (11 ft.) above grade without using any form of personal fall protection. This was a violation of the fall protection requirements. The firm also failed to submit a notice of compliance detailing the steps that were being taken to comply with orders issued for previous violations.
Company: Revelstoke Builders Supply (1978) Ltd., Revelstoke
Classification unit: Home improvement centre
Amount: $5,322.12
Date of penalty: April 14, 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. It failed to assess the risk of musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) from using desks not designed as computer workstations. It failed to assess the risk of injury from violence for cash-handling activities. It also failed to ensure the storage racking was properly designed and safely used. Finally, it failed to submit a report explaining what it had done to comply with the orders it received relating to these violations.
Company: Sonepar Canada Inc., Vancouver
Classification unit: Electrical, plumbing, or heating supplies, or packaged building supplies, hardware, or other metal product wholesale
Amount: $11,760.92
Date of penalty: October 2, 2009
This employer failed to ensure that materials were placed, stacked, or stored on racking in a stable and secure manner. This violation resulted in a worker's serious injury. The employer failed to ensure that the racking could withstand any stresses likely to be imposed upon it. Further, the employer failed to provide workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety in carrying out the work of placing, stacking, and storing materials.
Company: Andrew Sheret Ltd., Victoria
Classification unit: Electrical, plumbing, or heating supplies, or packaged building supplies, hardware, or other metal product wholesale
Amount: $75,000
Date of penalty: December 10, 2008
Injury and repeated non-compliance. A worker was injured when he fell 3--3.7 m (10--12 ft.) from an elevated work platform to grade. The injured worker had been standing on a wooden pallet supported by the forks of a forklift, with no guardrail or fall protection system in place. This employer showed repeated non-compliance with sections 11.2(1)(a) and 16.7(d) of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.
Company: Bornstein Seafoods Canada Ltd., Ucluelet
Classification unit: Fish wholesale
Amount: $12,852
Date of penalty: November 21, 2008
A new worker required the amputation of his right foot after he stepped on an unguarded and energized screw-type auger.
Company: Paz Fuels Ltd., Abbotsford
Classification unit: Gas bar
Amount: $13,404
Date of penalty: November 6, 2008
This employer repeatedly failed to meet the requirement to ensure prepayment for fuel before pumping.
Company: 550395 BC Ltd., Coquitlam
Classification unit: Retail bakery or delicatessen
Amount: $4,353
Date of penalty: September 5, 2008
A worker was injured when he failed to properly lock out a bread dough rising machine. During a subsequent inspection, the same machine was observed in an unguarded position, and the worker operating the machine could not describe the machine's lockout procedure. The firm failed to ensure the health and safety of its workers.
Company: Aztech Home Sales Ltd., Merritt
Classification unit: Mobile home sales or installation
Amount: $3,428
Date of penalty: August 11, 2008
The firm's supervisor was observed working over 3 m (10 ft.) on a sloped roof without a fall-protection system in place. Repeated non-compliance with fall-protection requirements.
Company: Replay Golf Supplies Inc.
Classification unit: Wholesale
Amount: $6,377
Date of penalty: June 10, 2008
Fatality. A diver was killed in a diving incident. The employer failed to ensure the health and safety of workers by permitting divers to work without supervision or diving procedures.
Company: Westfair Foods Ltd.
Classification unit: Supermarket
Amount: $15,000
Date of penalty: May 26, 2008
Repeat violations regarding the maintenance of storage racking in a safe condition.
Company: 543400 BC Ltd., Highway 3, Sparwood
Classification unit: Firewood yard
Amount: $3,250
Date of penalty: January 31, 2008
An unsupervised and inadequately trained worker was fatally wounded when he was caught in the hydraulic ram of the firewood splitter he was operating.
Company: Al's One Stop Services Ltd., 1309 Ewen Avenue, New Westminster
Classification unit: Light industrial equipment, machinery, or power tool rental (less than 500 lbs weight)
Amount: $2,500
Date of penalty: January 18, 2008
The employer acted in a manner that impeded or dissuaded a worker from reporting an injury and filing a claim with WorkSafeBC.
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