Evraz fined $935K in 2 separate 2019 workplace injuries

Ottawa-based steel and mining company Evraz Inc. NA Canada pleaded guilty on Feb. 9 in Regina provincial court to violating provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations in two separate incidents in 2019.

The first incident happened on Jan. 24, 2019, when a worker at the Regina plant was rolling a pipe and slipped on ice and snow causing him to be pinned between the pipe and a steel plate of a conveyor. It resulted in serious injuries for the worker.

The second incident took place almost two weeks later on Feb. 6 at the Regina plant. A worker was attempting to put out a grease fire on a machine that moved, causing a serious injury to the worker.

In the first incident, Evraz pleaded guilty to contravening clause 12(a) of the regulations (being an employer, fail to provide and maintain plant, systems of work and working environments that ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of the employer’s workers, resulting in the serious injury to a worker).

Evraz was fined $257,142.14 with a $102,857.86 surcharge, for a total of $360,000 in this incident,

In the February 2019 incident, Evraz pleaded guilty to contravening clause 137(1)(a) of the regulations (being an employer, fail to provide an effective safeguard where a worker may contact a dangerous moving part of a machine, resulting in a serious injury to a worker).

One charge was withdrawn in this incident.

Evraz has been fined $410,714.29 with a $164,285.71 surcharge, for a total of $575,000 in relation to the incident.