Bolton man fined $22,000 in worker’s death

November 15, 2018 · 0 Comments

Written By JOSHUA SANTOS

A company director from Bolton is facing a fine after a worker died in a facility in Toronto.

Following a guilty plea, Robert Markle was fined $22,000 by Justice of the Peace Rosanne Giulietti in a Toronto court on Thursday, Nov. 8. The crown counsel was Wes Wilson, according to a news release.

The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special government fund to assist victims of crime.

“For fines over $1,000, the surcharge is 25 per cent of the court imposed fine. In this matter, it’s 25 per cent of $22,000 or $5,5000,” said Janet Deline, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

Markle is sole director of JTF Davco Ltd. and occupies all of its officer positions.

His plant, located at 80 Millwick Dr., Unit 1, fabricates threaded inserts from brass and other metal stock.

The worker died after his neck was compressed during an incident on Feb. 16. 2017.

The Ministry of Labour said they were notified the following day.

“Due to privacy legislation, the Ministry of Labour is not able to provide a name, age, gender or contact information for any worker,” said Deline.

The worker was a machine operator, responsible for overseeing the operation of screw machines, including loading stock in to the machines and checking product for quality control.

One of the machines used in the plant was a five-spindle automatic screw machine. It had an exposed stock reel composed of a bundle of five tubes into which thin 12-foot rods of brass stock were placed. The stock was inserted into the machine and the machine would fabricate threaded inserts from the stock.

The stock reel would complete a partial rotation at fixed intervals to accommodate the insertion of different bars of bras stock into the machine. The stock reel was held together with two locking collars, each of which had five bolts, the heads of which protruded from the collar.

During the shift, the worker sat down on a wooden crate near the exposed stock reel. The wooden crate was not a designated seating area. Their back was to the bundle.

As the stock reel rotated, the exposed bolt heads of one of the collars grabbed the worker’s shirt collar and pulled the shirt into the rotation of the stock reel, which killed him.

The exposed stock reel and locking collars were not protected by a guard or other device to prevent access to the moving parts.

Section 24 of the Industrial Establishment Regulation, – Ontario Regulation 851 – states where a machine or prime mover or transmission equipment has an exposed moving part that may endanger the safety of any worker, the machine or prime mover or transmission equipment shall be equipped with and guarded by a guard or other device that prevents access to the moving part.

Markle did not ensure the corporation completed with Ontario regulation 851, contrary to section 32(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.