Norwich construction company fined $60K after employee falls to their death in workplace accident

A long row of angled wooden trusses are seen in a building under construction. (Source: Getty)

A construction company has been fined $60,000 after an employee fell 10 metres off a barn roof and sustained fatal injuries in a December 2023 workplace accident.

According to a news release, on Dec. 3, 2023, a worker was installing strapping across roof trusses of a dairy barn in Thamesford when they fell through the truss framing and fell 10 metres to the ground, sustaining fatal injuries.

Earlier this month, the company who’d contracted the employee, Hendrik Jan Van Ginkel Construction, based in Norwich, pled guilty for failing to ensure the worker was using fall protection.

Despite fall protection being available onsite, the worker did not use any method of protection at the time of the accident, and the company did not assign a supervisor or provide formal safety talks on the project. Despite having a written policy, no formal fall protection procedures were implemented at the time of the incident, the release adds.

The company was fined $60,000.

The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, which is required by the Provincial Offences Act. According to the release, the surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Following the incident, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development issued orders, including stop work orders, which required the company to implement fall protection measures and develop a rescue plan, which the province says were complied with.