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$100,000 workplace fine for Kitchener manufacturer and its CEO

THS Industries Ltd. on Manitou Drive in Kitchener on Jan. 27, 2022. (Terry Kelly/CTV Kitchener) THS Industries Ltd. on Manitou Drive in Kitchener on Jan. 27, 2022. (Terry Kelly/CTV Kitchener)
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A Kitchener company and its CEO have been fined $100,000 for machine guarding violations.

THS Industries Ltd., on Manitou Drive, is a steel nail manufacturing company.

The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development said the company and its CEO Xiaoye He “failed to take all reasonable care to ensure equipment, materials and protective devices… were provided for nail-maker machines, leaving workers at risk of accessing moving parts inside the machine.”

On Dec. 22, 2021, occupational health and safety inspectors visited THS Industries Ltd. to “investigate an anonymous complaint that workers were bypassing machine guarding devices on nail-maker machines.”

They found unfixed access gates on several of them.

The investigators learned of one case, where an employee was seen “working inside an open access gate of a running machine”, and in another instance, “a machine’s lid was open while the machine was running.”

Inspectors also found that “fixed guards had been removed around a significant number of nail-maker machines and at multiple locations on each machine.”

The ministry said no one was hurt but the machine changes could have resulted in serious injuries.

THS Industries Inc. was fined $85,000 plus an additional $15,000 for He, as well as a 25 per cent surcharge which will go to a special provincial fund to assist victims.

The ministry said this was the third conviction in six years for THS Industries Ltd.

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