Laminacorr guilty in ‘critical’ workplace injury

In this April 2018, file photo, Laminacorr's factory on Marleau Avenue in Cornwall, Ont. (Newswatch Group/Bill Kingston, File)

CORNWALL – Manufacturing company Laminacorr has been fined $50,000 for a workplace injury in 2021.

The company pled guilty in a Cornwall court last week (Dec. 6) to violating a section of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for not ensuring workplace measures and procedures are being followed.

The Ministry of Labour says a worker building pallets in July 2021 was cutting a piece of 2×4, using a notcher, when they were critically injured trying to get a piece of wood out of the machine.

The investigation found that an “in-running nip hazard between the cutting heads of the machine was unguarded” at the Marleau Avenue plant.

The ministry did not elaborate on the extent of the worker’s injuries.

In addition to the $50,000 fine under the Provincial Offences Act, Justice of the Peace Claire Winchester also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge ($12,500) for a total penalty of $62,500.

The victim fine surcharge goes to a special fund to help crime victims.

Laminacorr makes a number of corrugated plastic products, such as signs and packaging.