Stelco fined $180,000 after sinter plant worker loses leg

NEWS RELEASE

ONTARIO MINISTRY OF LABOUR

************************* Stelco Inc. fined $400,000 for occupational health and safety violations

HAMILTON, ON - (April 3) - Stelco Inc. pleaded guilty and was fined $400,000 for three occupational health and safety violations in the Ontario Court of Justice on April 2. Justice Norman Bennett heard that on June 17, 2005, two workers were injured when Stelco Inc. failed to ensure that a shear blade was moved in such a way, and with the necessary precautions, as to ensure the moving of the blade did not endanger the safety of any worker.

In failing to do so, Stelco did not comply with section 45(a) of Regulation 851/90 and with section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

On hearing Stelco's guilty plea, the court imposed a fine of $160,000. Court also heard that on November 11, 2005, a worker lost a leg below the knee after becoming pinned between equipment on a machine in the company's sinter plant.

Stelco pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that adjustments, repairs and maintenance were performed on the machine only when motion that may endanger a worker had been stopped, and that any part that had been stopped that may subsequently move and endanger a worker, had been blocked to prevent its movement.

Stelco had failed to comply with section 75 of Regulation 851/90 and with section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The court imposed a $180,000 fine. Justice Bennett accepted a third guilty plea, hearing that on February 2, 2006, Stelco failed, as an employer, to ensure that a safety gate on a blast furnace at the company's Wilcox Street, Hamilton, location was fenced or guarded as required by section 185(2) of Ontario Regulation 854/90, contrary to section 25(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Court imposed a $60,000 fine In addition to the fines, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge on the total, as required by the Provincial Offences Act.

The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

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