A Langley manufacturer was handed a $58,489 penalty by WorkSafeBC this fall after a worker got caught in a mechanical roller and suffered serious injuries.
The penalty was imposed on FT Synthetics on Oct. 11, according to a WorkSafe summary of the incident. FT Synthetics makes roofing materials.
The injured worker was caught in unguarded rollers on a laminating machine.
“The firm failed to ensure that its machinery was fitted with adequate safeguards to prevent worker access to hazardous points of operation. This was a repeated and high-risk violation,” says the WorkSafe summary.
WorkSafe did not release details on the type of injury suffered in this incident, but said that in manufacturing, fractures and cuts to fingers, hands, and wrists are the most common injuries.
This was the only time WorkSafe has fined FT Synthetics in the last decade, according to online records.
The fine is the largest WorkSafe has handed out to a Langley firm this year – most other fines are in the range of $1,250 to $5,000, and most involve construction site safety or failure to follow proper procedures for removing asbestos when demolishing old buildings.
The maximum penalty WorkSafeBC can hand out is $710,488. In 2021, it handed out 359 penalties totalling $7.9 million in fines.
According to WorkSafeBC, there were 19,000 injuries in the manufacturing sector that led to lost time from work in 2021, and close to 4,000 of those were serious injuries.
The Langley Advance Times has reached out to FT Synthetics for comment.
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