Worksafebc issued fines totalling $ 4.9 million in 2011

Highest penalty imposed over death at blasting site

British Columbia employers who seriously violated health and safety rules on the job site — including incidents that resulted in the deaths of 17 workers — were fined a total of $ 4.9 million last year by Worksafebc.

In all, the provincial work- safety agency handed out 352 penalties to 289 individual employers in 2011, with penalty amounts ranging from $ 700 to $ 250,000. The highest penalty was imposed against Peter Kiewit Infrastructure Co. in connection to the February 2009 death of 24- year- old Samuel Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick was crushed by a large rock that came loose as he was hand drilling a boulder to prepare it for blasting at a work site near Powell River.

An inspection report made public by Worksafebc states the company “committed high- risk violations knowingly, or in reckless disregard” of health and safety obligations.

Kiewit has since appealed the penalty, and the case remains under review.

Only two companies operating in B. C. have received stiffer penalties for safety violations: forestry giant Weyerhaeuser ($ 297,000 in 2007) and Teck Cominco ($ 270,000 in 2002).

Jeff Dolan, director of investigations for Worksafebc, said monetary penalties are imposed on employers for “repeated or serious” violations of health and safety regulations.

An employer is not penalized if they have taken “all reasonable steps” to prevent risks to their workers, he said.

A total of 147 fatal and serious- injury investigations were conducted by the agency in 2011, but “not every one resulted in a penalty.”

The dangerous job of removal of asbestos was a major focus for the agency in 2011.

Last year Worksafebc developed a team of eight prevention officers to focus on non- compliance in residential demolition and asbestos abatement. About 15 per cent ( 54) of the penalties imposed in the year were for asbestos – or other hazardous materials- related violations — the vast majority of which were for companies doing residential demolition and asbestos abatement.

Among those cited in 2011 for repeated violations was asbestosremoval contractor Arthur Moore.

Moore was sentenced last month to 60 days in jail for contempt of court after he repeatedly ignored a B. C. Supreme Court order to cease exposing unsuspecting employees — including those as young as 14 years — to asbestos contamination.

Worksafebc penalty amounts vary year over year depending on the size of the employer involved ( companies with larger payrolls are assessed at higher penalties), and the seriousness of the violations. The maximum penalty amount is adjusted yearly – in 2011 it was $ 579,648.26.

In 2010, 256 employers were cited for safety violations, with penalties that year totalling $ 3.1 million.

Worksafebc’s enforcement activities in 2011 also included: 38,871 inspection reports issued; 63,538 orders written; 146 investigations involving workplace fatalities and serious injuries completed.

Dolan said, by releasing its 2011 enforcement report, Worksafebc hopes to “increase awareness of other employers in the province and, by doing so, gain compliance and prevent further violations of the act and regulations and prevents further workplace injuries or deaths.