Company Penalized for Not Having Written Fall Protection Safe Work Procedure

A company was fined $500 for failing to have a written fall protection safe work procedure on the site of a renovation project. It appealed, arguing that the foreman had a fall protection safe work procedure form in his truck on site. But the evidence was clear, said the Labour Relations Board, that the foreman didn’t have this form the day the safety officer requested it. And the Board found that the company’s owner treated this paperwork as ‘being more of a nuisance.’ In addition, although the company had gotten two prior warnings about having such written procedures, it merely made some inquiries to the Construction Association of Nova Scotia for a template and didn’t follow up on these requests. The Board concluded that due diligence required the company to ask the Department of Labour what was required of it to comply with the warnings. Instead, the company sat back, waited and ignored the warning. Thus, the Board upheld the penalty [Lorne AuCoin Renovations Limited (Re), [2015] NSLB 176 (CanLII), Nov. 2, 2015].