'Creative sentence' will lead to funds for OHS learning videos, toolbox guide, safety session
Through asphyxiation – the state or process of being deprived of oxygen — that’s how one Alberta worker died in the workplace in 2021.
Now, Alberta employer Smith Group Holdings – and subsidiary Brooks Asphalt & Aggregate – must pay $295,000 in total penalties, including a $1,000 fine, for their violations under occupational health and safety (OHS) laws that led to the incident.
The incident happened on July 23, 2021, on a road construction site in the County of Newell. A worker was cleaning out a gravel bin with a running conveyor. The worker was asphyxiated, according to the Alberta government.
On March 6 in the Brooks Court of Justice, Brooks Asphalt & Aggregate pleaded guilty to one charge under the OHS Act for failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker. The other charges against Brooks Asphalt & Aggregate and all charges against Smith Group Holdings were withdrawn.
In 2022 in Australia, the Melbourne County Court convicted and fined a company $600,000 following the suffocation of its apprentice.
‘Creative sentence’ after workplace death
The fine that the employer must pay will be put to good use.
“Under a creative sentence, $244,000 will be provided to the Alberta Construction Safety Association to develop a three-dimensional incident re-creation video, a series of learning videos, a toolbox talk resource guide and a safety session open to all industries,” said the Alberta government. “The remaining $50,000 will be provided to the Brooks Fire Department to purchase new rescue equipment.”
The OHS Act provides a creative sentence option in which funds that would otherwise be paid as fines are directed to an organization or project, to improve or promote workplace health and safety.
Both the company and the Crown have up to 30 days to appeal the conviction or penalty.
Recently, Manitoba announced it is bringing back project labour agreements in the construction industry.