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Resolute Forest Products fined for worker injury

Resolute Forest Products Canada has been fined $55,000 after a worker was injured at the company’s Fort Frances paper mill.

Resolute Forest Products Canada has been fined $55,000 after a worker was injured at the company’s Fort Frances paper mill.

According to a statement by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, the worker was injured on Nov. 29, 2012, while moving a stack roll to a paper machine

When the incident occurred, three workers in the paper mill were moving a 44,000-pound, 22-foot-long stack roll to a paper machine. One worker operated the forklift pulling the cart containing the stack roll while two others walked along the cart to guide it. To pass through a hallway about eight feet wide, it was necessary for the two workers to manually push and pull on the stack roll, the Ministry of Labour explains. As the cart moved forward, a wheel hit a column, causing the stack roll to move and pinch the arm of one of the workers who had been pushing on the roll. The worker suffered a crushed arm and wrist.

The Ministry of Labour investigated and concluded that Resolute Forest Products failed as an employer to ensure that a stack roll was moved in such a way and with such precautions as to ensure that the moving the roll did not endanger the safety of the worker. The company pleaded guilty and was fined $55,000 by Justice of the Peace Tom Logan.