After pleading guilty, Professional Valve Service Ltd. and a shop co-ordinator were fined $130,000 on Wednesday in the death of a worker.
In February 2014, the worker was killed while disassembling an industrial vacuum valve for routine cleaning and maintenance.
At some point during the process, a rod under pressure was released and driven through the worker's head. The worker was found by a co-worker and died two days later.
In this case the company's procedure for decompression before dismantling of the valve didn't match the manufacturer's.
In addition, the worker had been with the company for less than six months and had only worked on a similar valve once before and had no formal training for the task.
The court found that supervisor Joe Heynsbergen had assumed that the worker had training on the hazards associated with the company's procedure for disassembling the valves, but had no basis for that assumption.
The company pleaded guilty to "failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect the safety of the worker," and was fined $125,000.
Heynsbergen, pleaded guilty to "failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring that the worker was sufficiently trained and/or supervised to perform the task safely," and was fined $5,000.
In addition to the fine, the court imposed 25-per-cent victim fine surcharges as required by the Provincial Offences Act.
