Toronto, ON – Holt Renfrew & Co. Ltd., Holt, Renfrew & CIE, Limitee, a Canadian retailer, was fined $55,000 today for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was injured.
On June 12, 2010, at the company’s warehouse in Etobicoke, a worker was using a cardboard compactor. The worker was standing in front of the machine’s discharge door attempting to eject a bale of cardboard when the door suddenly flew open. The worker was hit by the door and pinned against a steel column. The worker suffered multiple fractures.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found that there was no interlock system in place to prevent the machine from working while the discharge door was being opened. This meant that as the worker unlocked the discharge door, the compactor’s moving parts were able to push the cardboard against the door, causing the door to violently swing open.
Holt Renfrew & Co. Ltd., Holt, Renfrew & CIE, Limitee pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that there was an interlock system in place to prevent the compactor from running while its door was being opened.
The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Alice Napier. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.