Alberta, Canada-based heavy equipment contractor SMS Equipment has been fined $200,000 over the death of a worker in 2022 at De Beer’s Gahcho Kue diamond mine.
Last Friday, SMS appeared in the Northwest Territories Territorial Court in Yellowknife and pleaded guilty to “failing to maintain their establishment in such a manner that the health and safety of persons in the establishment are not likely to be endangered”.
The court handed down a $200,000 fine to be paid by the Workers’ Protection Fund.
SMS provides heavy equipment to the construction, forestry, mining and road building industries.
A worker was fatally injured at the Gahcho Kue Mine Maintenance Shop on 1 September 2022 while inspecting and testing the ladder hydraulics on a haul truck boarding ladder.
The worker was pinned by moving parts and despite life-saving efforts, died from their injuries, according to the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC) of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
The commission says there were no hazard recognition or warning signs of a pinch point, and SMS did not conduct its own workplace safety inspection of the haul truck.
Following an investigation, WSCC filed seven charges against SMS for violation of both the Safety Act and the Mine Health and Safety Act.
However, pursuant to the plea agreement, the remaining charges – including that the company “failed to take every reasonable measure to protect the health and safety of their employees” – were stayed.
The Gahcho Kue diamond mine, which opened in September 2016, is a fly-in fly-out remote mine site located about 280km northeast of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories.
The mine is a joint venture between De Beers Group (51% – the Operator) and Mountain Province Diamonds (49%).
De Beers’ Canadian mines produced 1.3 million carats of diamonds in the first half of 2024.
UK-based ICMM this week released its Safety Performance report for 2023. The report is based on safety performance data provided by member companies, which represent a third of the global mining industry.
The report found that 36 fatalities occurred across the 25 member companies in 2023, which was an increase on the 33 reported in 2022, but lower than the 45 in 2021 and 44 in 2020.
North America accounted for 12% of the total with four recorded fatalities, and one recorded in Canada in 2023.
This is not the first time SMS has faced legal action, with an employee in 2013 taking the company to arbitration over its refusal to allow her to work day shifts to take care of her children.
Renee Cahill-Saunders, a single mother of two young children, worked as a first-year apprentice welder for SMS and was required to work seven days on followed by seven days off, rotating between night and day shifts.
According to the legal documents, on the weeks Cahill-Saunders worked nights she was unable to sleep during the day because she had to take care of her children and it was too costly to pay for additional daycare during the day as well as at night while she was working.
The Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union filed a grievance on behalf of Cahill-Saunders, claiming that SMS’ refusal to accommodate her request to work exclusively day shifts violated the prohibition against discrimination on the basis of family status, pursuant to the collective agreement and the Alberta Human Rights Act.
The sole arbitrator, Lyle Kanee, found in favour of the employee and ordered SMS to allow her to work day shifts.
However, SMS requested a judicial review of the decision which was considered by the Court of the Queen’s Bench of Alberta in 2015. The court upheld the arbitrator’s decision and dismissed the request for a judicial review.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: De Beers and ICMM
