Accident at Wal-Mart
leads to safety conviction
Company claimed worker
wasn't following procedure
when he tripped over pallet on floor
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
WAL-MART CANADA has been found guilty of not ensuring a safe
workplace following an accident where a warehouse worker tripped
over a pallet on the floor of the warehouse and hit his head.
Lorenzo Tagliacozzo was a maintenance employee at a Wal-Mart
store in Brampton, Ont. Most of his duties were janitorial, but he
also sometimes worked in the warehouse unloading trucks. Hired in
February 1999, he filled various positions at the store over the years,
Cannabis countdown
What employers need to do before recreational marijuana use becomes legal in 2018
BY MELISSA CAMPEAU
ON CHRISTMAS Eve 2009,
five Metron Construction Cor-
poration workers were mak-
ing repairs to the exterior of a
high-rise apartment building in
Etobicoke, Ont. When the swing
stage they stood on suddenly
collapsed, four of the workers fell
to their deaths and one sustained
serious injuries.
The employer was eventually
fined $750,000 and the project
manager received a 3.5-year
jail sentence, in part because of
a failure to prevent employees
from working under the influ-
ence of marijuana, says Norm
Keith, partner at Fasken Mar-
tineau in Toronto. Three of the
workers had marijuana in their
systems at a level consistent with
recent ingestion.
With Canada just one year
Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safety-reporter.com
July 2017
CHRONIC PAIN FROM PRE-EXISTING
CONDITION, NOT WORKPLACE INJURY
Worker's chronic pain and anxiety weren't
reported at time of workplace accident but
resembled previous conditions pg. 3
WORKPLACE FALL LEADS
TO PERMANENT BENEFIT
ENTITLEMENT pg. 5
Pre-existing carpal tunnel syndrome was
aggravated and knees were permanently
injured in office worker's tumble
NO EVIDENCE LINKING BACK
INJURY TO WORKPLACE
ACCIDENT MEANS NO BENEFITS
FOR SURGERY RECOVERY
No medical evidence herniated disc was
caused by workplace accident
pg. 6
INSIDE
NEWS BRIEF
Higher > pg. 4
Credit:
Shutterstock/aastock
Empty > pg. 2
PM
#40065782
WHAT ABOUT MEDICAL
MARIJUANA AT WORK?
The use of medical marijuana is
growing quickly in Canada. Top 10
Legal Risks for Business in 2017,
published by Borden Ladner and
Gervais (BLG), noted:
• The number of Canadians legally
registered to purchase marijuana
increased 1,244% between April
1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2016
• Dried marijuana sales to legally
registered Canadians increased
1,170% in the same period.
• Cannabis oil sales to the legally
registered Canadians increased
414.4%, between Jan. 1 and
Sept. 30, 2016.
The Access to Cannabis for
Medical Purposes Regulations
states that when an employee pro-
vides written documentation from
a physician saying the employee
must consume cannabis for medi-
cal purposes to be able to work,
an employer must consider the
request, pending safety concerns.
In the BLG publication, legal
experts weighed in on the bal-
ance between the duty to accom-
modate and the duty to maintain
a safe workplace: "Employees in
safety-sensitive positions might
not be entitled to smoke or ingest
medical cannabis at work while or
before performing their duties."
