Company pleaded guilty to leaving in-running hazard unguarded
Pepsico Canada ULC has been fined $80,000 after a worker was hurt on the job at a breakfast cereal and granola bar manufacturing facility in Peterborough, Ontario.
The incident happened in September 2020 while the worker was checking moisture and sugar levels in cereal products. The employee noticed cereal wasn’t coming out of a conveyor belt that breaks cereal sheets into smaller pieces.
The worker decided to go down to the conveyor line and push sheets of cereal into the conveyor belt.
The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development says that’s when the worker was hurt. It says the employee suffered a critical injury “from an unguarded in-running nip hazard created by the conveyor belt drive roller and the supporting table.”
Section 25 of the Regulation for Industrial Establishments requires in-running nip hazards of a machine be guarded to prevent access to the pinch point.
The company pleaded guilty to failing as an employer to ensure the measures and procedures required by Section 25 of Ontario Regulation 851 were carried out.
Pepsico must also pay a 25 percent victim surcharge, which is accredited to a provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
