GM Canada has been fined $325,000 over the death of a St. Catharines plant worker.
According to a report by Well and Tribute, the worker, Daniel Sevcik, died on October 21st, 2021 after falling almost three meters (about 10 feet) from a milling machine onto the concrete below at the St. Catharines plant. The man was replacing a pneumatic cylinder when he fell, and had previously worked for General Motors for 47 years.
In the Ontario Court of Justice, The General pleaded guilty to failing to follow Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) standards. More specifically, the case is related to the Detroit-based automakers lack of an adequate means of protecting its workers in the case of a fall.
“This is obviously a monumental tragedy for the family members and friends,” Judge Cameron Watson was quoted as saying. “No one expects to go to work and not to come home. Unfortunately, in this day and age, there are certain occupations where that is a possibility. One thinks more of first responders – firefighters, police officers – but, unfortunately, work such as what occurs at the GM of Canada company carries with it, at times, an inherent danger.”
The ruling is intended to send a message to General Motors, and other employers, that any breach of the OSHA will not be tolerated.
“Cases such as this, no dollar amount can in any way shape or form measure the loss of someone’s life,” Judge Watson said. “Tragically and awkwardly these matters must have a quantification of a dollar amount. The dollar amount does not equate to a life.”
It’s worth noting that another worker sustained serious injury to both his upper and lower extremities at the same plant early this year while working inside a machine.
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Comments
If he had 47 years of service at the time of the accident he was likely at least 65 years old. Why they would send a man that age to do a cylinder replacement at that elevation. When I worked in the power plants in my early days, they used common sense, they young guys got the difficult/dangerous work and the old guys got to stay at ground level doing less strenuous work. That only makes sense, duh!
Because that was his job. If he was to old to his job he should have retired.
LOL you must be young, I hope you are not in supervision. It requires common sense and discretion.
Because gm management is as ignorant and out of touch as they’ve been for the last forty plus years. This man worked for gm for 47 years yet all he was is a plant worker? I’m sure the man had a title or trade. Alex Luft, I expect a little more out of you and the rest of your website workers!
Someone is triggered… might be a good topic to discuss with your therapist worker.
Had the union reported it before? were there complaints earlier? How heavy was this cyl. what kind of surface was he walking on? Any health problems? We got less than half the story
The union should have paid this fine, not GM, because the union should have made him wear a harness, not GM.
Its the companies job to ensure the safety of its employees. The union is there to assist and make sure workers rights are upheld. With safety union representatives it’s their job and expectation of the membership they service to make sure the company is following all safety regulations/ policies/ protocols. They also assist in identifying areas that can be deemed more safe and continuously trying to improve the safety for all members. The goal is not to just meet minimum standards it’s always to succeed minimum standards. Unfortunately sometimes an unimaginable event such as this forces all sides to identify improvement. The issue is too little too late in this case. Heart goes out to the family and friends of this tradesperson. Everyone deserves to go home the same way they went to work.
Always have a spotter when working off the floor from a ladder, standing on equipment or scaffolding, especially from a ladder.
I agree that this guy was in his 60’s and probably performed the task many times, but as we age the eyes, the brain and muscles do not communicate as they did.
At 10 feet above the floor,GM safety protocols mandate that he should have been harnessed and tied off. So unless it was a breakdown and the supervisor said “just get it done”(pretty unlikely) then he was not “Working Safely”.
Harnesses required at 6 feet to a tie off, must have been an underlying circumstance that he was unable to do so.
OSHA? In Canada it’s CCOHS.
In the province it’s called Ontario Safety & Health Association
O H S A
Occupational Health and Safety Act
As to the guys age, St Catherines is highly automated, other than material handling people, most of the employees are millwrights or other skilled trades who babysit and maintain the machines, and those guys are all 50 plus.
The workers are trained routinely that they must wear fall protection in circumstances like this. It is unfortunate, but the employee also likely played the most significant role in this tragedy. Experienced workers want to be trusted to do their job properly. That include proper PPE when doing the job. It is unrealistic to expect company managers to check if the employee is doing everything correctly all the time. I was at GM for 41 years. Fall protection training is regularly required but was clearly not followed by this employee.