Allen Services and Contracting fined $100K for worker fatality

Company had been previously convicted under Safety Act

Allen Services and Contracting fined $100K for worker fatality

Allen Services and Contracting has been fined $100K for an offence under the Northwest Territories' Safety Act.

On February 20, Allen Services & Contracting appeared in the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories in Inuvik. Allen Services had previously been convicted of an offence under the Safety Act for failing to ensure work was sufficiently and competently supervised, a violation of Section 16(1)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Regulations.

The prosecutor and counsel for Allen Services jointly proposed a sentence of a fine of $100,000. Counsel for Allen Services requested a waiver of the victim of crime surcharge. The judge agreed with the joint sentencing proposal, as well as with the request to waive the victim of crime surcharge. Allen Services was sentenced to a fine of $100,000, which is paid to and forms part of the Workers’ Protection Fund.

The conviction stems from an incident on June 28, 2016 in which a worker, David John Vinnicombe, was fatally injured at a work site near Inuvik, N.W.T.

It is important that all employers take all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of all persons on their work sites, including providing sufficient training for those operating powered mobile equipment and other heavy machinery. All employers must ensure the adequate instruction of each worker in the safe performance of their duties.

Source: Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut