A London company has been fined $65,000 after one of its workers suffered critical injuries on the job.
Great Lakes Copper Ltd, which operates a factory at 1010 Clarke Rd. in London, had the fine levied against it after pleading guilty to violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act. According to a summary released by the Ministry of Labour, on October 17 of last year, a worker at Great Lakes Copper was operating a machine that resizes coils of copper tubing. After being re-sized, the tubes are moved to an adjacent horizontal surface by a carriage, arm and finger mechanism.
The worker walked from the operator's area to an area adjacent to the machine in order to speak with a supervisor, who was on the floor. The worker used a raised walkway beside the machine.
"The button that prevents the equipment from continuing to work and places it in a manual mode was not pressed," the Ministry said in a statement released Monday. "The worker walked past the carriage, arm and finger mechanism of the machine, and leaned against the machine's limit switch. This caused the machine carriage to move and it struck the worker."
The worker was critically injured when he was pinched in the gap between the carriage and the horizontal surface being walked on.
In addition to the $65,000 fine, a 25 per cent surcharge was imposed as required by the Provincial Offences Act.
