A small construction company in Chatham is being fined following a worker fatality.
The Ministry of Labour states that John Harris Concrete Ltd., a very small construction company specializing in concrete foundations, has been fined $85,000.
The Ministry states that in late October 2022, a worker was fatally injured while cutting down a tree during a construction project in Dawn-Euphemia - a township in Lambton County.
One of the company's five workers was clearing brush and felling trees from the area around a drainage ditch when they were fatally struck by a tree.
The company failed, as an employer, to provide training to the worker as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act. And the Ministry states that while the worker had been trained to operate a chainsaw safely, they were not trained on tree felling.
The company pleaded guilty in the Provincial Offences Court in Sarnia, and was convicted in mid-January 2024.
John Harris Concrete Ltd. is located on Heron Line in Chatham.