Southwest Glass Products Inc. Fined $50,000 After Worker Injured

Court Bulletin

Ministryof Labour

12-19 For Immediate Release

March 22, 2012

Southwest Glass Products Inc. Fined $50,000 After Worker Injured

London, ON – Southwest Glass Products Inc., a Toronto glass manufacturer, was fined $50,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.

On September 9, 2010, at the company’s London plant, a worker was unloading glass sheets from a mechanized conveyor. The worker stumbled and reached out to stop from falling. The worker’s hand made contact with a mechanized roller on the conveyor and was pulled around the roller. The worker lost a finger and a tendon.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the employer had installed a guardrail in front of the conveyor but it was removed by workers to make their job easier. At the time of the incident there were no other protective devices to prevent workers from accessing the rollers on that part of the conveyor.

Southwest Glass Products Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the conveyor was guarded to prevent access to its moving parts.

The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Jacob Bruinewood. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Sports, Leadership and Team Chemistry: How can it apply to your Workplace?

As a business owner or manager you probably have a number of people working under you and those people likely work in some sort of team.  There are inherently interpersonal dynamics at play. Your team isn’t that unlike any professional sports team. There will be leaders, there will be the quite dependable ones, rookies and veterans and there may be a couple you`d put on your “trading block” or choose not to resign for next season but the real world isn’t like the sports world and you may be in a position that has you trying to keep everyone moving forward.  The point I’m making is there are different strengths and weaknesses amongst your employees, people who will step up and lead the group, others who you know you can count on for quality results and those that may need more guidance to perform their jobs.   The manager (YOU) need to focus your attention on creating the right work groups and teams to get the best results. If you’re seeing some groups at your workplace struggle while others succeed you may need to consider mixing up your “lines”. Maybe putting your easily distracted employee with a couple quite dependable employees could help focus his or her attention to achieve the right results or maybe a key leader among your employees might be best suited to work with one of your more inexperienced individuals to coach him along, provide the guidance needed and step in when mistakes are made. Team chemistry and the way people interact and play off each other can mean the difference between a championship squad and one that misses the playoffs. Which will yours be? Put on the coach’s hat and see what you can achieve by trying to understand the people in your workplace and who they perform best with.

www.hrnc.ca

Fines for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured

Court Bulletin

Ministry of Labour 12-17 For Immediate Release
March 15, 2012

Manufacturer Fined $50,000 After Worker Injured

Brampton, ON – Surteco Canada Ltd., carrying on business as Doellken-Woodtape, an international manufacturer of plastic edging for use on furniture, was fined $50,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.
On March 30, 2010, a worker at the company’s Brampton plant was cleaning out a hopper. The worker reached a hand into the hopper while an auger inside it was slowly rotating. The worker’s hand was injured when it was caught by the auger and trapped against the hopper wall.
Surteco Canada Ltd., carrying on business as Doellken-Woodtape, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the auger had stopped rotating before the worker began cleaning the hopper.
The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Thomas McKeogh. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Court Bulletin

Ministry of Labour  12-18 For Immediate Release
March 15, 2012

Con Cast Pipe Inc. Fined $55,000 After Worker Injured

Guelph, ON – Con Cast Pipe Inc., a Guelph manufacturer of concrete infrastructure products, was fined $55,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.
On August 24, 2010, workers were pouring concrete into a steel form. One worker was standing beside the form and using a remote control to operate an overhead crane to pour buckets of concrete into the form. Without warning, one side of the steel form detached and fell on the worker. The worker suffered multiple fractures and a punctured lung.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the welds used to hold the form together were inadequate to resist the weight of the wet concrete being poured into the form.
Con Cast Pipe Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the form was designed and constructed to resist all loads and forces which were likely to be applied to it.
The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Adriana Magoulas. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

www.hrnc.ca

Facebook is a recruiting tool used by employers.

Here is an excerpt from an article by Kashmir Hill for Forbes.  You can find the whole article at this link:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/06/what-employers-are-thinking-when-they-look-at-your-facebook-page/

"While some readers were put off by the idea of being stalked by potential employers, others recognized the utility of tapping into all the information out there about a given candidate.
“If I’m an employer, and it’s legal, and I’m about to make a major investment in someone that I’ll have to work all day with, I’ll use it,” said “gugie.” Puneet Thiara agreed with her: “The costs associated with hiring and training a new employee far outweigh the risk of not doing ALL of your research. You could say it’s similar to me researching a company I am applying for and checking out members of its groups on Facebook to see what kind of people work for the company.”
But other readers want employers to stick to the social networks intended for professional use. “I — and I know many others are with me here — use ‘social networks’ (other than LinkedIn, that is) for just that. Networking SOCIALLY. In my opinion you have no more business examining my Facebook entries than you would crashing a private cocktail party,” wrote a person who spelled “anonymous” in a very eccentric way. “[S]ocial networks should not be used IN LIEU of face-to-face meetings.”
Brettb was of this opinion as well:

[J]udging the character of an individual with such heavy weight on their personal life, which nine times out of ten will never interfere with their professional life, is wrong. The practice of physically sitting down and going through the motions of an interview with a candidate and asking probing intellectual questions while vigorously researching reference data is a much better way to select a qualified candidate. So what if Johnny had a few too many beers one night in Cancun when he was in college and someone took a photo, or if Susie openly supports her local death metal band. Does that make them bad people? No – get to know the candidate if you want to make a judgment of character. See how they handle themselves in a professional atmosphere and if they are personable or rather, someone you feel you can work with.

In my opinion, those who don’t want employers looking them up on Facebook pages are fighting a losing battle.
Christian Miller won the comments section with this remark:

Any candidate worth considering should be smart enough to set their privacy settings in order to hide all content from any potential employer. Anything a competent HR staff can find via google search is fair game.

Good luck, job seekers. And along with polishing your resume, dry-cleaning your interview suit, and researching the companies you’re interviewing with, do pay a visit to your Facebook privacy settings page."

www.hrnc.ca

Village of Point Edward Fined $75,000 After Worker Killed

Court Bulletin


12-16 For Immediate Release
March 6, 2012


Sarnia, ON – The Corporation of the Village of Point Edward was fined $75,000 today for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was killed.

On January 30, 2010, members of the village’s paid volunteer fire department were participating in ice water rescue training. After doing swimming and floating exercises, the workers were instructed to swim out to a moving sheet of ice, climb it, and ride it down the lake. Some of them could not climb the ice floe and attempted to swim back to shore. One worker, unable to climb onto shore, was pushed by the ice floe under its surface. The worker was trapped under the ice floe for about four minutes. The worker was removed but died due to being trapped in the cold water.

A Ministry of Labour investigation determined that although there was rescue equipment in one of the fire trucks parked on shore during the exercise, there was no equipment readily available to pull the worker onto shore.

The Corporation of the Village of Point Edward pleaded guilty as an employer to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that adequate rescue equipment was available for the ice water rescue training exercise.

A related charge against an individual is still before the courts and is scheduled for a trial in May.
The fine was imposed by Justice Deborah Austin. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.


www.hrnc.ca

New Water Plumbing Inc. Fined $100,000 After Worker Killed

Court Bulletin

12-15 For Immediate Release
March 5, 2012

New Water Plumbing Inc. Fined $100,000 After Worker Killed

Toronto, ON – New Water Plumbing Inc., of Thornhill, was fined $100,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was killed.

On December 23, 2009, two workers from New Water Plumbing Inc. were in the mechanical room of a Toronto condo tower. They had taken a large exhaust fan out of its housing. As the workers were moving the fan, a light fixture they had swung out of the way swung back and hit the fan. Part of the light fixture was damaged, allowing its electrical charge to contact the fan. The worker who was holding the fan at the time was fatally electrocuted.

New Water Plumbing Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the fan was lifted, carried or moved in a way that would not endanger a worker.

The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Mary Anne Ross Hendriks. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

For further information:
Media contact:
Matt Blajer
Ministry of Labour
416-326-7405

Court Information at a Glance
Location: Ontario Court of Justice
70 Centre St.
Toronto, ON

Judge: Justice of the Peace Mary Anne Ross Hendriks
Date of Sentencing: March 1, 2012
Defendant: New Water Plumbing Inc.
Matter: Occupational Health and Safety
Conviction: Ontario Regulation 851, Section 45
Crown Counsel: David McCaskill

www.labour.gov.on.ca
www.hrnc.ca

How does privacy in the workplace affect the employer and the employee?

Most of us are aware of PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection of Electronic Data Act). The Act put into place in 2000 to assist consumers to trust electronic transfer of their personal information; such as medical and health issues, credit card information, social insurance numbers and Ontario health information and medical care numbers.  Fraud in the use of our medical system was rampant as information numbers were stolen and there was no identification necessary at that time.

Things have changed drastically since then.  Has fraud stopped?  Well, no...  Usually as soon as a new rule comes into place some genius has already found a way to use it or abuse it.

However, when it comes to the employer, you have a duty to protect your employee's information and keep it confidential.  What about those 3rd party phone calls that ask you if so and so works for you and is this how much they make?  There is an easy way to take care of that situation.  Make a policy that asks each employee to fill out a request form for a certain company to ask about their employment information and have it active for a certain time period.  This way you do not have to comprise any information without your employee's consent and the employee can have their information verified quickly and painlessly.

Most financial institutions are happy to have a pay stub from the employer and if they know you - your word on how long you have been employed by that company.

It is very important that all employee information is kept confidential and not given to anyone without the employee's consent.

Something that even small businesses may want to consider - what are you doing with your computer/blackberry smart-phone backups.  If you are wondering exactly what this refers to you could be looking at a lot of hassle down the road.  Most individuals don't even know that they are able to backup their phones.  And many businesses only have their client and employee information on one computer.  If anything happens to that computer - well, let's just say copy the information on your computer to a flash drive, SD card, digital backup hard drive, etc.  Protect yourself, your business, your employees and your clients.

Be smart - not burnt!

www.hrnc.ca