A company that provided traffic control services has lost an appeal of two compliance orders issued against it under occupational health and safety legislation.
The compliance orders required the company to ensure that all traffic control signage was available and installed, and that a traffic control plan and checklist was completed prior to a traffic control setup.
The company appealed the compliance orders to the Nova Scotia Labour Board, arguing that the safety officer should have issued the orders to an employee, not to the company, as signage was readily available to the employee and he had failed to draw upon his knowledge, training and experience.
The Labour Board dismissed the appeal, deciding that there was inadequate supervision of employees and the workplace; there was inadequate signage for several hours; the company’s area supervisor had arrived at the site hours after the work had started, even though the employee in question had a history of similar infractions; and the area supervisor left the site before the situation was corrected. As such, the company had not done all that it could do to comply with its safety obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It could not avoid responsibility by blaming the employee. The company’s appeal of the compliance orders was dismissed.
The Labour Board’s decision may be read here.
