A “repeated and high-risk violation” at a Burnaby worksite has cost a Surrey construction company $20,000 in fines, according to WorkSafeBC.
Modern Touch Construction Ltd. was framing a two-storey house at 6260 Royal Oak Ave. last November, when a WorkSafe inspector witnessed two of the company’s workers working on the roof at heights between about 14 and 25 feet without fall protection, according to WorkSafe.
The inspector also noted missing guardrails, an unguarded basement stairwell, two damaged wooden step ladders and scaffolding that wasn’t wide enough and wasn’t properly secured.
WorkSafe further found Modern Touch hadn’t provided its workers with adequate instruction and supervision to ensure their health and safety at the site.
This isn’t in the first time Modern Touch has been fined for violating fall-protection safety regulations at worksites in Burnaby.
In 2015, the company was fined $5,000 in March for violations at a site at 8603 10th Ave. and $9,368 in August for violations at a site at 4494 McKee St.
At the McKee site, WorkSafe said workers were exposed to 12- to 20-foot falls onto construction debris and exposed rebar.
WorkSafe said those infractions “were committed knowingly or with reckless disregard.”
Modern Touch owner Jasmeet Sangha is appealing the latest fine. While he and another worker weren’t wearing fall protection that day, he told the NOW they “were not that high.”
Sangha complied with most of the WorkSafe orders related to the November inspection by the following day, according to WorkSafe, and Sangha said “anybody can come and see” his current worksites.
“Everywhere I using the fall protection and the guardrails. I learned my lesson many times,” he said.
Sangha said he has also paid for all of his workers to take a fall-protection course.
