The LCBO has been fined $100,000 for lax safety practices that resulted in a forklift load breaking a worker’s leg at a Brampton store nearly four years ago.

It’s the first time the LCBO has ever been fined for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the LCBO said Wednesday.

On April 24, 2013, an LCBO retail worker was guiding their forklift’s forks into a loaded “mixed pallet” — stacked with multiple boxes or containers — at a store on Sandalwood Pkwy, in Brampton, when they heard an unusual noise. According to a Ministry of Labour release, the worker left their forklift, and was crushed by the product on the loaded pallet.

“We are upset and concerned that one of our employees was hurt at work,” the LCBO said in a release Wednesday.

An investigation by the Ministry of Labour found that the pallet was being moved unsafely — and that the driver had been assigned to a forklift despite outdated training.

Safety concerns from other workers at the Sandalwood LCBO store also weren’t unheard of, according to Justice of the Peace Cristina Santos, who presided over the court case.

These concerns weren’t acted on by management, Santos found.

The LCBO said a number of training initiatives were already in place at the time of the worker’s injury — including those for workers handling pallets. And even before it happened, the LCBO said it was already using automated pallet lanes (APLs) to better arrange loaded pallets and help with stability.

The LCBO now stretch-wraps all mixed pallets. According to the LCBO, the Ministry hasn’t investigated an injury caused by a mixed pallet since the one in April 2013.

Despite the injury, the LCBO said it exceeded an internal goal to reduce lost-time injuries by 50 per cent between 2010 and 2015. It hit 67 per cent.

“To date, lost-time injuries at the LCBO continue at record low levels,” an LCBO statement read. The report also said that fiscal year 2015 to 2016 saw another decrease of 30 per cent.

The LCBO was fined for the April 2013 accident for not ensuring that safety procedures were being carried out properly at the Brampton location, and for not ensuring that the act of moving an object — such as a pallet — wouldn’t endanger their workers.

Aside from the $100,000 fine, issued April 11, the LCBO faces a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge which goes toward an Ontario governmental fund to support victims of crime.

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