Following a guilty plea in the Provincial Offences Court in Woodstock, Saputo Products Laitiers Canada S.E.N.C./Saputo Dairy Products Canada GP (Saputo) has been fined $79,500 and ordered to pay a 25% victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act due to a June 2023 incident which saw a worker being critically injured while attempting to clean waste cheese particles out of a groove in a conveyor drive roller.
The court heard that, on 4 June 2023, a worker was cleaning and sanitizing the equipment used to process and package various cheese products.
The fixed-in-place guards, designed to prevent worker access to in-running nip hazards, were removed from a conveyor to allow the worker access to all parts of the machine for cleaning.
While attempting to clean waste cheese particles that were stuck in the groove of a conveyor drive roller, the worker was critically injured. The conveyor had been running while the worker was cleaning it.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found that worker would not have been injured had the conveyor been equipped with a guard to protect the worker from accessing the in-running nip hazard.
Saputo failed, as an employer, to ensure the measures and procedures prescribed by section 25 of the Regulation for Industrial Establishments were carried out in the workplace, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
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