September 19, 2011 – Cimco Refrigeration—a division of Toromont Industries Ltd. that manufactures and maintains refrigeration systems—was fined $95,000 for a violation of Ontario’s Occupational Health & Safety Act after a worker was injured. Sobeys Capital Inc. (carrying on business as Sobey’s Whitby Retail Support Centre, a grocery distribution centre), was fined $30,000 in relation to the same incident.

On August 22, 2009, a worker from Cimco was servicing an electrically powered door at the Whitby support centre. While standing on a ladder, the worker made contact with the door’s energized control panel. The worker fell from the ladder, sustaining severe head injuries and electrical burns.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found the control panel was neither disconnected from the power supply, nor locked out/tagged before the worker started service to the door. Also, during the course of investigation, a manager from Sobey’s asked a maintenance worker to perform a task that involved interfering with the scene of the occurrence.

Sobeys Capital Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that no one interfered with or altered anything at the scene of the incident until permission to do so was given by an inspector.Cimco Refrigeration pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the power supply to the control panel was disconnected, locked out/tagged before any work was done on or near live exposed parts of the control panel.

In addition to the fines, the court imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act, which is credited to a provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.