- June 9, 2021
- Miscellaneous
This decision concerned an appeal of a decision of the BC Workers’ Compensation Board (WorkSafeBC) (“the Board”) in a matter involving Arrow/Zombie/The Flash/The 100 et al. (“the Employer”), a company that produces motion pictures. IATSE, Local 891 participated in the appeal. The Board had imposed a penalty of $75,000 against the Employer pursuant for section 196(1) of the Workers Compensation Act (“the Act“) and corresponding Regulations for several violations of the Act further to three separate instances where employees working on a motion picture projects were injured over the course of a few months in 2015.
In the first instance, an employee who was not wearing safety equipment fell through a false floor made of Styrofoam and particle Board and suffered serious injuries. The second incident occurred three weeks after the first. An employee who was working from a lift used a ladder to come down; however, the ladder was not secured and slipped, and the employee fell and sustained serious injuries. In the third incident, a carpenter injured his hand while using a table saw. When the incident occurred, he was wearing gloves and the saw did not have a blade guard or kickback fingers, contrary to legal requirements.
The Review Division held that the facts underlying each of the three incidents and corresponding violations of the Act and/or Regulations had been established. Specifically, all three incidents constituted “high risk violations,” the Employer failed to exercise due diligence, and safety supervision was inadequate. Even though the Employer had no prior penalties, was a sophisticated company with an established safety program and there was no suggestion that it had failed to comply with orders in the past, Review Division held that the seriousness of the incidents justified a penalty in this case. As such, the penalty of $75,000 was upheld.