Kitchener-based company receives $50K fine after worker suffers critical injury

A Kitchener-based company has received a fine of $50,000 in relation to a workplace injury in 2021.

The company, Rapid Precision Machining & Gearing Ltd., operating as Rapid Gear, builds and designs individual gears, gear boxes, and special purpose machinery and has been doing so since 1976.

The incident in question took place on Nov. 9, 2021, as a worker was polishing a metal shaft on a manual lathe in the company’s fabrication shop.

It’s reported the worker was holding a piece of emery paper and was using it to polish the shaft as it rotated on the lathe. The worker was wearing a tightly fitted cloth glove at the time of the incident.

While polishing the rotating shaft, the emery paper stuck to the rubber fingers of the worker’s glove, and became entangled with the rotating shaft, resulting in a critical injury.

According to the details from the report, the company has a health and safety policy, but none of the workers had seen or been made aware of its contents.

The company’s policy said only workers with appropriate trade qualifications were to use the lathe. However, the worker who sustained injuries was not qualified. Training on the lathe, including hazards associated with it, was only verbally communicated and was not documented; while the manual for the lathe was in Czech, a language no one in the workplace spoke.

In addition to the fine, the company received a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge which is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.