LONDON — A Kitchener-based electrical company and a supervisor with the firm were convicted June 10 and fined for their roles in a January 2018 incident in which three workers received burns from an arc flash.
O’Connor Electric Ltd. is a provider of electrical services on construction projects and Mike Walker is a work crew supervisor, stated a Ministry of Labour release.
The mishap occurred in an electrical room in White Oaks Mall on Wellington Road in London on Jan. 11 of last year.
That day, a six-person crew including Walker was working at the mall to upgrade electrical services. The project involved shutting down the existing service and installing a new switch and wiring.
While three workers installed the disconnect, an arc flash occurred, with the system becoming energized. Al three received electrical burns.
During a trial held in London, a justice of the peace found that O’Connor Electric failed as an employer to establish and implement written measures and procedures as prescribed in Section 190(2)(a) of Ontario Regulation 213/91, for Construction Projects.
That section of the regulation provides that an employer shall establish and implement written measures and procedures to ensure workers are adequately protected from electrical shock and burn.
Walker was found to have failed as a supervisor to ensure workers had followed Section 190(4) of the Regulation for Construction Projects.
That section requires that “the power supply to the electrical equipment, installation or conductor shall be disconnected, locked out of service and tagged…before the work begins, and kept disconnected, locked out of service and tagged while the work continues.”
Following guilty pleas and a conviction, the provincial court fined O’Connor Electric $55,000 and Walker $5,000.
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