Health and safety violations

The Alberta Court of Appeal just dismissed an employer’s appeal and confirmed that the employer did not do all that was reasonably practical in the circumstances to avoid the reasonably foreseeable risks that led to the fatal accident of its employee. The court noted that the fact that the employer would even consider operating a machine that no one had any familiarity with and without either its own operator or a proper set of written instructions in itself spoke volumes as to the lack of the employer’s due diligence in this matter. Therefore, the health and safety violations were upheld.