A Surrey-based framing company has been fined more than $43,000 after a WorkSafeBC inspector found workers at a North Vancouver construction site working at least six metres off the ground without adequate fall protection, a repeated violation for the firm.
According to WorkSafeBC’s report, in October, 2024, the inspector visited the job site at 124 West 20th St. where Nu Frame Inc. crews were working on the third floor of a new six-storey building. There, she saw two workers at high risk of falling while receiving wall panels being delivered by crane.
“On site, I observed multiple workers for the employer on the top level that did not have completed guardrails or a control zone in place. Workers were exposed to a fall hazard of approximately 20-25 feet. The workers were wearing fall protection harnesses but upon closer inspection, two workers for the employer were unattached to the lifelines set up on the deck,” the report read.
In the same trip, the inspector found a worker employed by a subcontractor walking along a two-by-four piece of lumber about five feet off the ground. Under the B.C.’s occupational health and safety regulations, the minimum width for scaffolding is 50 centimetres.
In December, the worker safety authority issued Nu Frame Inc. an administrative penalty of $43,300.
“The firm failed to ensure fall protection was used, a high-risk violation, and failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety. These were both repeated violations,” the penalty summary stated.
The company is seeking a review of the penalty.
The amount of the fine is typically based on the size of the employer’s payroll, the nature of the infraction and whether the employer has been caught with similar violations within the last three years.
Falls are the leading cause of deaths and serious injuries in construction, WorkSafeBC says.
In the last five years, the agency has had more than 22,000 claims for workplace falls. Of those, 5,703 resulted in serious injuries and 88 resulted in deaths.
In 2024, WorkSafeBC imposed 105 administrative penalties totalling more than $1.1 million specifically for companies’ failures to protect workers from falls.
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