Workplace Safety

The Ministry of Labour is still investigating how a man in his 50’s was killed at work Tuesday afternoon. It’s being called an industrial death right now, but the general manager of North American Tillage Tools suspects the man, in his 50’s, may have died of natural causes. The Ministry of Labour is waiting for the coroner to determine the cause of death.

This comes less than a week after Kalvin Richards was killed cleaning a tank that had canola oil and nitrogen inside. Richards left behind a 5 month old daughter, his girlfriend Macey Cherrington says he complained about unsafe working conditions before.

“There was never any protective equipment, the way they did things wasn’t right. He did refuse unsafe work sometimes.”

Workplace safety advocate Karl Crevar says he hears similar complaints all the time and employees have the right to refuse unsafe work. “But reality to us in many cases there are workers afraid to complain about unsafe work places, afraid of being fired or let go.”

If a company is covered under the workplace safety and insurance act, suing if you’re injured or killed is almost out of the question.

There were at least 28 workplace fatalities in Ontario last year, that’s up from 24 in 2016. There were also more than 200,000 WSIB claims made last year in the province, but safety advocates say there are many more cases where people don’t report their injuries for fear of losing their jobs.