Roofing company fined $20k for safety infraction at new Port Moody elementary school
Transwest Roofing was hit with a stop-work order last February and recently fined $21,069 for failing to outfit workers with fall protection.
Three workers were about 20 feet off the ground while they unloaded a pallet at the new Port Moody elementary school at 110 Buller St.
The workers didn’t have fall protection, a guardrail system, “or any other form of fall protection,” according to a WorkSafeBC inspection report.
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“The supervisor was down below watching the workers unload the material,” the inspector noted.
The supervisor told the inspectors the fall protection equipment was in their trailer on the jobsite. He also provided training records for the workers.
The workers acknowledged the risk but told the inspector the job wouldn’t take long and that they’d taken away guardrails to reach the pallet on the forklift.
The inspector spotted areas on the site exceeding 25 feet where roofers had completed work with no fall protection plan.
The inspector asked the employer for a fall protection plan.
“The employer did not have one,” the inspection report stated.
Based on the lack of adequate controls and the potential risk of serious injury, the WorkSafeBC inspector opted to issue a stop-work order.
The stop-work order was lifted the next day, after the employer showed evidence of necessary instruction and supervision, as well as a fall protection plan and safe job procedure, including loading materials onto roofing with guardrails.
The Transwest fine follows a series of similar penalties across the Tri-Cities.
WorkSafeBC also fined Mountain West Roofing Inc. $6,213 for a lack of fall protection at a Coquitlam job site.
“The firm also failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety,” according to a release from WorkSafeBC. “These were both high-risk violations.”
RJD Framing Ltd. faced a $2,500 fine allowing workers to wear fall protection harnesses that weren’t connected to lifelines while working on a two-storey house in Port Moody.
“These were both repeated and high-risk violations,” WorkSafeBC reported.
From 2019 to 2023, WorkSafeBC accepted 22,044 claims for falls from heights. Of that total, 5,703 resulted in serious injuries, and 88 were fatal.
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