Improper storage of asbestos-containing drywall and a lack of fall-protection gear were some of the common infractions at works sites in Burnaby this year to draw the ire of WorkSafe BC.
While a number of companies have been fined various dollar amounts for health and safety violations by the agency, the biggest in the city was handed out to an asbestos-removal company.
WorkSafeBC slapped BCS Contractors Ltd. with a $60,000 fine in April related to the demolition of a home in Burnaby.
According to WorkSafeBC’s database, five of this firm’s workers were preparing a pre-1990 house for demolition by stripping the interior, when prevention officers inspected the worksite and found that the company allowed its workers to improperly bag asbestos-containing drywall and then dump that drywall in a bin in front of the house.
The organization said this was a failure on the firm’s part to ensure that no work that would disturb asbestos-containing materials took place unless the necessary precautions had been taken to protect workers. WorkSafeBC also noted it was a repeated violation committed “knowingly or with reckless disregard.”
It was the 19th largest fine handed out by the agency this year, but it wasn’t the only fine for BCS Contractors in 2015.
The company was fined another $7,500 in June for failing to follow its own procedures for asbestos abatement on a home slated for demolition.
WorkSafeBC said the firm failed to ensure written procedures for the safe removal of asbestos-containing materials were followed and that its workers complied with safety regulations concerning asbestos abatement. Since 2010, the firm has incurred 14 penalties for similar violations.
May was an expensive month for Matcon Civil Constructors Inc., which was hit with a $49,152.70 fine on a city project.
The company was performing municipal sewer work when it allowed its worker to enter a three-metre (nine feet) deep trench cut through one lane of a busy road. The banks of the trench were not properly sloped, shored, benched, or otherwise supported as required for trenches more than 1.2 m deep.
The company is appealing the fine.
Accurate Roofing Ltd. got dinged $11,582.50 from the agency in February at a site in Burnaby where workers were re-shingling the roof of a one-and-a-half-storey house.
WorkSafeBC said two workers were using personal fall protection gear but the third, although he was wearing a fall protection harness, was not attached to a lifeline. No other form of fall protection was in place and the third worker was exposed to a risk of falling 3.4 to five metres or 11 to 16 feet. WorkSafeBC said the company failed to ensure fall protection was used, a repeated violation.
The company is appealing the fine.
In 2014, the biggest fine in Burnaby was issued to numbered company 327494 B.C. Ltd. /Monte Cristo Bakery for $62,874.24.
In this case, a worker was seriously injured while cleaning a running dough-forming conveyor machine. WorkSafeBC's investigation found the firm failed to provide information, instruction, training, and supervision to its workers to ensure their health and safety. It also failed to ensure that the energy source for a machine that could cause injury was isolated and effectively controlled. These were all repeated and high-risk violations.
