Worker Struck by Flying Metal, $60,000 Fine for Montreal Company

Convicted: Lexsuco 2010 Corporation/Corporation Lexsuco 2010, 1100 Boulevard Cremazie Est., Bureau 805, Montreal, Quebec, a company that manufactures and distributes commercial roofing products throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.

Location: A Lexsuco workplace located at 3275 Orlando Drive, Mississauga, Ontario.

Description of Offence: 

A worker suffered injuries after a cutting tool caught on a piece of copper that then struck the worker.

Date of Offence: May 31, 2016.

Date of Conviction: March 6, 2018.

Penalty Imposed:

  • Following a guilty plea, Lexsuco 2010 Corporation was fined $60,000 by Justice of the Peace Angelo E. Amenta in Mississauga court. Crown Counsel: Mike Nicol.
  • The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Background:

  • A worker employed by Lexsuco in the company’s Mississauga facility was trimming a large copper disc on a lathe.
  • The worker was spinning a large copper disc to create a flashing hub approximately two inches in length. This hub would be used to connect flat roof drains to downspouts.
  • As the worker was attempting to trim the outer edge of the disc with a cutting tool, the cutting tool caught on the copper, tearing a large piece of copper off the copper disc (called a swarf).  The swarf hit the worker, who suffered injuries.
  • The subsequent Ministry of Labour investigation found that, at the time of the injury, the spin area on the lathe was not guarded or shielded to protect the worker from the swarf as required by the Industrial Establishments Regulation (Ontario Regulation 851/90).
  • As such, Lexsuco committed the offence of failing, as an employer, to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by section 26 of the regulation were carried out in the workplace contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The company failed to ensure that the lathe was shielded or guarded so that the product or material being processed or the waste stock will not endanger the safety of any worker.

CONTACTS

Janet Deline
Communications Branch
416-326-7405
For media inquiries only: MOLMedialine@ontario.ca

1 Comment

  1. Safety Penalty

    The $60,000 fine to a Montael Roofing products company with plant in Ontario sends a serious message to employers that they are liable for injuries if they fail to put in adequate safety measures to protect employees.

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