Workplace Fatality Leads to Charge, $133,000 Fine

Released on December 30, 2021

On December 20, 2021, the City of Humboldt pleaded guilty in Humboldt Provincial Court to one violation of occupational health and safety regulations.

The city was charged with contravening subsection 263(1) of The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 1996, (being an employer, fail to ensure that a worker present in a trench that is more than 1.2 metres deep, is protected from cave-ins or sliding material by cutting back the upper portion of the walls of the trench in accordance with subsection 260(2); installing a temporary protective structure; or a combination of cutting back the walls to the slope specified in subsection 260(2) and installing a temporary protective structure that extends at least 300 millimetres above the base of the cut-back, resulting in the death of a worker).

As a result of this violation, the City of Humboldt was fined $95,000 with a $38,000 surcharge, for a total amount of $133,000.

The workplace fatality occurred on September 18, 2019, in Humboldt when a worker was fatally injured after a trench wall collapsed.

Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, in partnership with the Workers' Compensation Board, supports and promotes Mission: Zero - zero workplace injuries, zero fatalities and zero suffering. We are all responsible for keeping ourselves and each other safe and healthy at work.

To learn more about safety in the workplace, visit www.worksafesask.ca.

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