December 26, 2016 – Bona Building & Management Ltd.—an owner-operator of residential and commercial buildings—pleaded guilty and has been fined $50,000 after a worker received an electrical shock and was injured while replacing part of a light fixture.

In July 2015, an employee of Bona was working at one of the company’s commercial office buildings. While changing a ballast on the ceiling of one of the building’s public hallways, the worker suffered a shock and fell from a 5-ft ladder. He suffered fractures.

Contrary to both Ontario Regulation 851 and Bona’s own policy, the light fixture’s energy source was not shut off, locked-out nor tagged.

Ontario’s Ministry of Labour investigated this incident and determined Bona failed in its duty as an employer to ensure that measures and procedures prescribed by the regulation were carried out in the workplace.

The company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the power supply to an electrical installation was disconnected and locked out before work was done, and was fined $50,000. The court also imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge.