MINISTRY OF LABOUR
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Convicted: Casino Rama Services Inc., 5897 Rama Road, Rama, Ontario (near Orillia).
Location: Casino Rama.
Description of Offence: Two workers slipped and fell on the icy surface of the employee parking lot, sustaining critical injuries.
Date of Offence: Dec. 5, 2016.
Date of Conviction: June 6, 2018.
Penalty Imposed:
- Following a guilty plea, Casino Rama was fined $50,000 by Justice of the Peace Michael Frederiksen in Orillia court; Crown Counsel Jai Dhar.
- The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
Background:
- A worker arrived at work and after parking, walked through the parking lot, slipped and fell.
- Other workers went to assist and one them also slipped and fell.
- The workers were transported by ambulance to hospital. Their injuries were deemed critical.
- Investigation by the Ministry of Labour revealed that the area of the parking lot where the workers fell was covered with ice and snow and was very slippery. Surveillance footage of the area showed that seven other people had slipped on ice in this parking lot earlier in the day.
- At the time of the accident, Casino Rama had a snow removal policy that included applying road salt in walkways and customer parking areas. However, the policy did not include applying road salt in the employee parking lot.
- Section 11(a) of Ontario Regulation 851 (the Industrial Establishments Regulation) requires that "a floor or other surface used by any worker shall be kept free of obstructions, hazards and accumulations of refuse, snow or ice."
- Casino Rama Services Inc. failed as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed in section 11(a) of Ontario Regulation 851 were carried out at the workplace.
- This was an offence under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
