BRAMPTON – Parmalat Canada Inc., a Canada-wide producer of milk and dairy products, fruit juices and table spreads, has been fined $290,000 after pleading guilty to safety violations that led to the death of a worker.

On October 25, 2012, a Parmalat worker entered a mobile sales truck parked on the grounds of the company’s facility at 16 Shaftsbury Lane in Brampton to purchase safety shoes. By the time the worker emerged to walk back inside the building, a tractor trailer being driven by a subcontractor had entered the grounds and had stopped beside the mobile sales truck. The tractor trailer’s driver then began to reverse into an adjacent loading dock and the tractor trailer struck the Parmalat worker. The injured worker succumbed to the subsequent injuries.

The Ministry of Labour’s investigation found that there was no signaler present to direct the tractor trailer. Section 56 of Ontario Regulation 851 – the Industrial Establishments regulation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act – requires that an operator of a vehicle who does not have a full view of the intended path of travel of the vehicle must be directed by a signaler.

Parmalat Canada Inc. pleaded guilty to failing as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by the regulation were carried out, and was fined $290,000.

In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.