Fatal fall leads to $110K fine for Kitchener roofer
A Kitchener roofing company has been fined $110,000 for its role in a 2022 incident that led to a worker’s death.
Matpol Metal Roof Manufacturing Ltd., which carries out business as Canadian Metal Roof Manufacturing Ltd., pled guilty in Provincial Offences Court in London for failing to ensure that every employer and every worker performing on a project complied with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations.
The company will also pay a 25% victim fine surcharge.
The incident occurred on April 6, 2022.
Matpol was the constructor on a project installing a metal roof on a single-family home. It had subcontracted another roofing company to complete this work.
On the day of the incident, a worker from the subcontracted company was installing metal sheathing on the second-storey roof of the building, when they fell to the ground and suffered fatal injuries.
An investigation by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development found that while fall protection equipment was available on site for use at the time of the incident, the worker was not wearing fall protection when they fell from the roof.
Matpol was found to have failed, as a constructor, to ensure that where a worker is exposed to a fall of more than three metres, and it is not practicable to install a guardrail, the worker must be adequately protected by a method of fall protection.