WorkSafeBC has handed out nearly double the amount of fines for industry safety infractions this year and 2014 over the previous two years, part of a new approach to use penalties as deterrents.
In 2014, 433 penalties were issued totalling $6 million. As of last week, already 509 penalties have been handed in 2015 out with a total value of $6.4 million, according to figures provided by WorkSafeBC at the request of The Vancouver Sun.
In the past three years, individual penalties have ranged from $700 to a high of $149,871. That highest penalty was issued in November 2014 to WWL Vehicle Services Ltd. for an incident in Delta where a worker fell off a rail car and was seriously injured.
GORDON HOEKSTRA – VANCOUVER SUN – DECEMBER 7, 2015.