Maple Leaf Foods fined after worker injured

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. was fined $120,000 for failing to protect a worker injured on the job.

The company pleaded guilty and was sentenced Sept 11 in the workplace accident that resulted in an employee’s arm being struck and injured at the facility at 440 Glover Road South in Hannon.

The worker was in the midst of dumping deboned chicken into a hopper for processing on March 23, 2016 when the container holding it collapsed eventually resulting in the employee being hit.

The chicken had been loaded onto a pallet in a large cardboard and plastic box called a combo. It was then placed in the processing equipment to raise and dump the chicken into the hopper.

The combo collapsed during the dumping of the chicken so the worker began lowering it to try to fix it. But it fell out of position on the equipment.

The employee was trying to correct the positioning by hand when the pallet holding the combo slid down.

The worker was struck in the arm and injured.

A Ministry of Labour investigation determined the company failed to protect the worker in the way the chicken was moved and didn’t have necessary precautions and safeguards in place as required. Both are a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

In addition to the fine imposed by Justice of the Peace Kelly Visser, the company also had to pay a 25-per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act.