TWO SASKATCHEWAN EMPLOYERS FINED FOR FALL PROTECTION VIOLATIONS

Two Saskatchewan residents have pleaded guilty to charges under the province's Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) regulations and been fined a combined total of $6,460.

Tanya Neufeld of Swift Current, carrying on business as The Neu Character Builder, pleaded guilty to one charge of failure to ensure that workers use a fall protection system where a worker may fall three metres or more, and was ordered to pay a total fine of $4,900. An additional charge of violating OHS regulations was stayed in court.

Neufeld was charged this spring, after a worker was injured when he fell from the trusses of a building at a construction site in Swift Current in the summer of 2009.

In the other case, Thomas Kowalchuk of Yorkton, operating as K & K Construction and Carpentry, pleaded guilty to three charges under OHS regulations in connection with a routine inspection of a residential construction site in Yorkton in November, 2008. Occupational Health Officers observed several workers installing shingles on the roof of a house without fall protection or protective headwear.

Kowalchuk was fined $1,560. Two other charges against him were stayed in court.

OHS has zero-tolerance for any failure to comply with fall protection and recommends prosecution whenever this is observed.

In the 2010/11 period, there have already been 20 convictions for non-compliance of OHS regulations related to protecting workers from falls, and a total of $41,600 in fines and surcharges levied.

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For more information, contact:

Bill Stovin
Labour Relations and Workplace Safety
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0926