Ontario Ministry of Labour fines Burlington company $200K after workplace injury

Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has fined a Burlington company $200,000 after an employee was hit by a trailer on Sept. 1, 2024.

The ministry says EarthFresh Farms Inc. at 1095 Clay Ave. failed to take the reasonable precautions of ensuring all lighting connections between a shunt truck and trailer were connected before the trailer was moved, contrary to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

The Justice of the Peace Mark Curtis, with Jeffrey Ludlow as Crown Counsel, fined the company $200,000 following a guilty plea at a Burlington courthouse.

The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim surcharge, required by the Provincial Offences Act, which is credited to a provincial government fund aiming to help victims of crime.

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Review of events on Sept. 1, 2024

According to the ministry, a worker at EarthFresh Farms Inc. at 1095 Clay Ave. was hit while performing checks on shunt trucks around the facility’s loading dock.

The report says just as the worker finished opening the back doors of the trailer and started to return to the shunt truck, a driver from another company exited a nearby trailer parked beside the shunt truck.

The driver noticed that the trailer connected to the shunt truck was not lit — an unlit trailer normally means that it should not move.

The driver then walked behind the trailer to the loading dock door to submit paperwork.

The shunt truck operator began reversing the trailer toward the loading dock doors. The operator did not see the driver because of a blind spot at the back of the trailer.

The driver was critically injured as a result of the events.

The ministry says an investigation found the audible reverse alarm on the shunt truck was not working, the shunt truck was being operated without the connection that powers the trailer’s lights or brakes, and that inspection records indicated no defects with the shunt truck.

The investigation also revealed that the employer instructed the operator that, because the shunt truck was not operated on a roadway, the trailer brake connector and reverse alarm were not required.

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