Company Fined $110k For Worker Injury At Transmission Plant

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A Cambridge, Ontario company has been fined $110,000 after a worker was injured at the GM Transmission Plant in 2010.

Process Group Inc. was sentenced Monday in Windsor by Justice of the Peace Michael Hurst. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge — a fee credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

According to a court bulletin, the worker’s injury took place while the company, which supplies engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services to manufacturing and industry, was working at the plant in Windsor, which was in the process of being decommissioned.

On October 27th, 2010, the company was working to gain access to a piece of equipment to be removed from the plant. Sections of an overhead conveyor had to be removed and workers cut and separated a section of the conveyor, removing the anchoring bolts on the base of the conveyor.

As the last bolt was loosened, the conveyor section toppled over, hitting a worker and causing vertebrae in the worker’s back and a bone in one leg to be broken, the bulletin states.

According to court documents, a Ministry of Labour inspection found that no blocking had been installed to prevent the collapse or movement of the conveyor section being dismantled.

Process Group Inc. was found guilty after a trial on November 12th of failing as an employer to prevent the collapse or movement of part or all of a piece of equipment that is being dismantled, altered or repaired if its collapse or movement may endanger a worker.