Contractor Convicted of OHS Offences in Young Worker’s Fall from Roof

A man hired a contractor to frame the walls and trusses for a building on his property. One of the contractor’s workers fell off the roof, breaking his wrist and two vertebrae. At the time, he wasn’t wearing any fall protection or a hardhat and there was no fall protection installed at the site. The contractor was charged with several safety offences. The court found that the injured 18-year-old worker had received no training at all. In addition, the contractor failed to notify the government about the incident as soon as reasonably possible. In fact, it never notified anyone. And the contractor failed to supervise the worker and ensure he wore appropriate PPE. In convicting the contractor, the court noted that there was ‘a flagrant disregard of legislation that was enacted to protect workers’ like this worker from incurring the kind of injury he suffered [R. v Fred Thue Construction Ltd., [2014] SKPC 168 (CanLII), Dec. 1, 2014].