January 18, 2010

Swing-stage tragedy

Safety of subcontractor’s workers a concern for all: industry lawyer

Brook Restoration holds event in response to recent fatalities

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

To ensure a job site is truly safe, the safety of a subcontractor’s workers is a responsibility which cannot be overlooked, safety and legal experts said recently to a crew of Brook Restoration foremen.

“Never assume on the job site you are not responsible for the workers of a subcontractor,” said Frank Crewe, a Bond Law attorney and Brook’s legal counsel. “You have to look out for the safety of their workers just as much as your own.”

Brooks management put together the safety training session after the Christmas Eve swing-stage tragedy at a Metron Construction Corp. jobsite on Kipling Avenue, which claimed four construction worker lives when a swing-stage came apart 13 storeys above the ground.

The company gathered about 30 of its foremen to discuss site safety, including swing stage and fall-arrest equipment issues and procedures.

The Jan. 12 session included presentations from Brook management, a Construction Safety Association of Ontario field consultant, Crewe and Cory Carter, president of Barantas Inc., an independent safety consultant.

Barantas has conducted more than 30 inspections of Brook work sites since October 2009 and has never found a worker not tied-off, noted Carter, but he did want to clear up a misconception that a subtrade’s safety is their responsibility alone.

“When a subtrade is on the site, the supervisor of that site, like Brook who has hired that subtrade, is now responsible for that subtrade,” Carter explained. “You are just as responsible for them because you have hired them on to do the work. You need to be responsible and cognitive of what everyone on your site is doing.”

Both Crewe and Carter commended Brook management for organizing the safety session so soon after the swing-stage incident.

Crewe also stressed in his presentation that a worker’s safety is not his alone to ensure. If someone is not wearing a hard hat or fall-arrest equipment they need to be confronted and the incident needs to be documented.

“You cannot hide behind subcontractors — if they are hired by your company, and you are the supervisor, you are just as responsible,” he said.

“If a guy falls that was not tied off and gets hurt, you can get charged individually as a supervisor (and) your company and the roofer can be charged as well. Anyone is liable.”

With ongoing Ontario Ministry of Labour and Toronto Police investigations into the Dec. 24 incident, Crewe suspects criminal charges could result.

The federal government’s changes to the Criminal Code, flowing from the inquest into the 1992 Westray mining disaster in Nova Scotia, allows for companies and individuals that work for companies to be prosecuted under the Criminal Code for workplace accidents.

“In addition to the Occupational Health and Safety Act you can be prosecuted under the Criminal Code for criminal negligence where there is a serious body injury or death,” said Crewe. “You are not doing anyone any favours by letting someone take shortcuts. Shortcuts inevitably lead to accidents and they do not save money, but cost money.”

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