Canadian Safety Reporter

July 2017

Focuses on occupational health and safety issues at a strategic level. Designed for employers, HR managers and OHS professionals, it features news, case studies on best practices and practical tips to ensure the safest possible working environment.

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2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2017 CSR | July 2017 | News including night maintenance, sales floor associate, tire and lube technician, and day main- tenance. He began performing janitorial duties in late 2011 and his responsibilities consisted mainly of cleaning washrooms and spills throughout the store. When Tagliacozzo moved to the maintenance department, he filled out a department-specific safety checklist form and ac- knowledged a job hazard analy- sis for day maintenance, which included mention of the risk of a foot injury from pump trucks and pallet jacks in the ware- house. He also read Wal-Mart's health and safety handbook. Tagliacozzo received mul- tiple performance appraisals that indicated he complied with the company's health and safety policies and was reliable in per- forming his duties. There were no issues or concerns with his following company policies. On Sept. 20, 2013, Tagliacoz- zo was working in the warehouse area during the store's anniver- sary sale. Things were busy with many items being moved out of the warehouse and there was an empty pallet on the floor. Wal- Mart requires aisles in the ware- house to be maintained with a clearance of at least 42 inches wide, but the empty pallet was sticking out from a row of full pallets in front of the shelving. Tagliacozzo was pulling a skid of bathroom tissue from a trailer with a manual pump truck and moving backwards, facing the skid. He didn't see the pallet on the floor and he fell over it before a co-worker nearby had a chance to warn him. Later that day, Tagliacozzo told a co-worker in the lunch- room that he had fallen over an empty skid while pulling an- other skid. He said he had hurt his head and hand, but seemed fine. The next day, he called Wal- Mart to report the accident and he was asked to come to the store to file a report. Tagliacozzo came to the store and filled out some paperwork, mentioning that he had a headache. He reported that his backside hit the empty skid on the floor and he fell back, hitting his head and left hand on a full pallet beside it. Wal-Mart had some cameras in the warehouse area, but none of them captured the accident. The only footage showed Taglia- cozzo unloading skids from the trailer. However, the co-worker who had tried to warn Taglia- cozzo was present and witnessed the accident. Company, ministry investigated Wal-Mart launched an investi- gation and determined the ac- cident was caused by "improper procedure" caused by incorrect use of equipment. Company policy — of which Tagliacozzo had been advised — was to pull pump trucks while facing for- ward, not backward. An acci- dent investigation report was completed identifying the root causes of the accident to be Ta- gliacozzo moving backward with the pump truck, not having enough space, and not asking for help to complete the task. Re- training of Tagliacozzo was rec- ommended. The store manager also checked out the area where the accident occurred, measuring 91 inches from the row of pallets to the row of skids. He determined there was enough room "if he was looking where he was going." The Ontario Ministry of La- bour learned of the accident and investigated on Oct. 4. The inves- tigator determined that an empty pallet in the aisle would block most of the 42 inches of clearance Wal-Mart specified for its aisles. Because it was near the dock doors, there was some additional space, but the walking aisle was a standard size. Wal-Mart's dairy manager described the space to the investigator as "tight" for pal- lets and the pump truck. Wal-Mart was charged un- der the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act for failure to ensure that applicable mea- sures and procedures were taken at its workplace to keep the floor of the warehouse free of obstruc- tions. Two weeks after the accident, on Oct. 5, Tagliacozzo passed away. None of the doctors or medical experts linked his death to the injuries suffered in the Wal-Mart accident. Wal-Mart claimed that it had taken reasonable precautions and trained Tagliocozzo in its safety policies and it couldn't have expected him to walk back- wards while operating the pump truck and pulling the skid. The company argued that the empty skid on the floor wasn't a hazard or obstruction, since Tagliocozzo would have been able to manoeu- vre around it if he had exercised "ordinary prudence" and used proper forward-facing position. The Ontario Court of Justice found that Wal-Mart had a des- ignated location for empty skids and pallets in the warehouse area. The empty skid in ques- tion was not in that location — it was lying on the floor in an aisle. There was no reason for Taglio- cozzo to expect there was a skid in his path and the skid posed a risk of someone tripping. As a result, the skid was a hazard or obstruction, the court said. The court found that while Tagliocozzo was trained on us- ing pump trucks to pull pallets, that training included walking backwards when negotiating a corner. In addition, the investi- gator's analysis of the accident site showed little space for Ta- gliocozzo to turn after negotiat- ing a corner in the aisle. Though Tagliocozzo may have been care- less or exercised poor judgment, he also may have been following his training, said the court. The court also found there was no evidence as to who left the pallet on the floor, nor did Wal-Mart try to find the reason why it was there. The court also noted that Tagliocozzo was primarily in a janitorial role since January 2012 and the department safety checklist he signed at that time dealt with other equipment he was supposed to be using, not a pump truck. There was also no evidence he had reviewed the pallet/skid safety guideline that had been updated more than 12 years after his initial training. The court determined that Wal-Mart had policies and procedures in place to ensure a safe workplace, but there were problems with how it imple- mented them. It was question- able whether Tagliocozzo was properly trained in using a pal- let jack and pump truck, since it wasn't part of his primary janito- rial duties and he had last been trained on them when he started in 1999. As a result, Wal-Mart could not prove due diligence in ensuring that the floor was kept free of obstacles and Tagliocozzo was following procedure. The company was found guilty of the safety violation. "Whether a prudent person could walk around them or not, there was no reason, even tem- porarily, to have an empty pal- let on the warehouse floor, in an emergency exit aisle, particular- ly where items are unloaded, and where a person with a loaded pallet jack has to make an angled turn," the court said. For more information see: • Ontario (Ministry of Labour) v. Wal-Mart Canada Corp., 2016 CarswellOnt 7524 (Ont. S.C.J.). Accident < pg. 1 Empty pallet wasn't in designated area Credit: Shutterstock/Niloo

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