Full staff and production has returned to the historic Arva Flour Mill.
A federal tribunal sided with Canada’s oldest water-powered flour mill in a dispute with safety inspectors who ordered the mill closed last spring over safety concerns.
The order was made in May 2016 by an inspector, who arrived at the mill north of London unannounced. She said exposed belts and pulleys posed a safety hazard to workers.
A stay of the shutdown order allowed mill owner Mike Matthews to operate the facility on his own but left Dustin Blackall and Tadek Lesniak, the two millers employed by the mill, unable to work for the past ten months.
That all changed Friday, when the Occupational Health and Safety Tribunal of Canada overturned the original decision by the Ministry of Labour.
"I had personally invested a lot of time in learning how to efficiently operate this mill, so when the stop work order was officially issued I was very disappointed because it meant that I couldn't put all of these skills I had spent years learning into practice. When I found out I was allowed back into work it was a great relief," said Blackall, who has worked at the mill for the past eight years.
The tribunal ruled that the inspector's findings were unfounded as the millers’ exposure to moving and rotating parts did not amount to an imminent or serious threat to their lives.
The original inspector testified that she did not physically observe the milling facility in person because she “did not want to put herself in a situation that she perceived to be a danger.” She also waited two weeks to to issue the shutdown order, which the tribunal found inconsistent with findings of an imminent threat to the life or health of the employees.
It concluded that the inspector's findings were "based on her own speculations that an employee could get caught up in the moving and rotating parts, rather than any objective facts."
In the interim, operations have returned to normal at the mill. However, Matthews has until August 3 to install machine guards on rotating and moving parts that may pose a danger to employees.
"Just given the nature of the equipment and how antiquated it is, it is going to mean having things made custom for us. It's not as if we can just go down to Home Depot and buy some guards," said Blackall. "It is going to be very costly and quite difficult but I know Mike's been working with an engineer to get that sorted out. I'm optimistic we will meet the August deadline."