WorkSafe BC has handed Rio Tinto a hefty fine for an incident at the company’s Kitimat aluminum smelter.
The company was fined just over $662,000 last month for what WorkSafe BC describes as “high-risk violation”.
According to the WorkSafe report, two workers doing maintenance work inside a gas treatment centre reactor were trapped inside the reactor and sustained exposure injuries.
Investigators found that the work had been done without all locks in place as required by the firm’s confined space key box procedure. WorkSafeBC says there was no record of a risk assessment for the work task and the key box procedure did not name everyone who applied locks.
It says Rio Tinto failed to ensure that “energy-isolating devices were locked in a safe position using acceptable procedures”.
WorkSafe BC says penalties are published as a deterrent and to highlight the importance of making workplaces safe.
