TORONTO — Aluminum Window Designs Ltd. (AWD) has been convicted and fined $90,000 after a worker received a critical injury while trying to remove a piece of aluminum from a punch press.
This is the second offence for the Woodbridge, Ont. company, which manufactures commercial and residential aluminum window products.
Following a guilty plea, AWD was fined $90,000 in provincial offences court in Newmarket, Ont. on Dec. 20, 2019. The company had been convicted of an offence in 2014 and fined $75,000.
The incident occurred on June 28, 2018. The worker was using a punch press to cut pieces of aluminum window frame. According to a Ministry of Labour court bulletin, a piece of aluminum became stuck in the machine and the worker attempted to remove the jammed piece. While pulling at the part, the top die section of the machine moved downward and the worker suffered critical injuries.
An inspector from the ministry assessed the scene and determined that the punch press was a machine with an exposed moving part that endangered the safety of a worker and was not guarded by any device that prevented access to the moving part, indicates the bulletin.
It was determined AWD failed as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures required by section 24 of Regulation 851 (the Industrial Establishments Regulation) were carried out in a workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act credited to a provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
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