A construction firm working in Langley was recently fined $11,284 for not protecting workers from falls, its fourth penalty from WorkSafeBC since 2018.
According to WorkSafeBC’s announcement of the penalty, a WorkSafe employee saw two GS&A Framing workers standing on the top plate of an exterior wall while framing a home.
If they had fallen, they would have dropped four meters (13 feet).
“The firm failed to ensure fall protection was used, a repeated and high-risk violation,” said the WorkSafeBC summary of the penalty.
GS&A owner Narinder Dhadda confirmed that the company was paying the fine in installments and said they were following rules on fall protection.
WorkSafeBC has issued a large number of fall protection-related penalties in recent years, as it tries to crack down and prevent workplace injuries.
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According to WorkSafe, in 2021 there were more than 7,000 injuries in the construction sector which caused time loss, and 1,592 of those were serious injuries.
Over the last five years, there were 5,893 workplace injuries in B.C. linked to a lack of fall protection, including 28 deaths.
In 2022 alone, WorkSafeBC issued just over $1 million in administrative penalties to various companies, across 164 separate incidents, all related to lack of fall protection.
The lack of fall protection gear, along with improperly installed scaffolding and guardrails, were the main fall risks to workers.
The safety regulator has a Construction Planned Inspection Initiative that aims to reduce injuries, through a combination of education, consultation, and enforcement actions.
Have a story tip? Email: matthew.claxton@langleyadvancetimes.com
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