Highline Mushrooms facility in Kingsville, Ontario. (Photo courtesy Highline Mushrooms)Highline Mushrooms facility in Kingsville, Ontario. (Photo courtesy Highline Mushrooms)
Windsor

Mushroom company fined $75K in employee injury

The operator of an Essex County mushroom farm has been fined for a workplace incident.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Highline Produce Ltd., which operates facilities in Leamington and Kingsville, has been fined $75,000 for a 2018 incident in which a worker was critically injured. Highline pleaded guilty, and the fine was imposed Thursday by Justice of the Peace Susan Hoffman in Leamington provincial court.

The ministry said the incident happened at Highline's Leamington farm on May 15, 2018, when workers were doing fillings in a mushroom "grow room". The job involved the use of a hydraulic winch to pull netting along the mushroom grow beds and distribute compost. Ministry spokesperson Janet Deline said one worker was operating one of the winch pullers when the worker somehow got caught in one of the attached cables and was pulled into the winch assembly, which formed a pinch point. The employee was seriously hurt.

The ensuing investigation determined that the winch puller in question was not equipped with a guard or other device that would have prevented access to the pinch point. The ministry ruled that Highline did not follow procedure by making sure the pinch point could not be accessed.

The court also imposed a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act, and is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

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