A pair of Kelowna companies have recently been in hot water as violations on the job site resulted in penalties from WorkSafeBC.

On June 24, 2024, two employees working for Lake Country's Enco Construction Ltd. were painting the exterior of the high-rise under construction at 1660 Water Street. As WorkSafeBC was inspecting the site, it saw the two workers (one of them a supervisor) on an 11th-floor balcony and while they were wearing personal fall protection equipment, their lifelines had "excessive slack." There were also no temporary or permanent guardrails installed.

"This configuration would not protect a worker in the event of a fall," read the inspection report.

Because of this, and the fall risk being 70 feet, WorkSafeBC quickly issued a stop-work order.

"The firm failed to ensure fall protection was used, and failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety," stated a press release. "These were both high-risk violations."

Further to this WorkSafeBC found that the employer had not established a system or process to ensure that workers were being provided with effective supervision.

"The level of supervision must be commensurate to the risks in the workplace taking into the consideration that the majority of the workers for this employer are temporary foreign workers who are under the age of 25 years and do not speak English," read the report. 

WorkSafeBC placed four orders on the company following the June 24 on-site visit. 

Over the last five years, WorkSafeBC has accepted more than 22,000 claims for falls for heights, with 5,703 resulting in serious injury and 88 resulting in death. In 2024 alone, they handed out 105 penalties, totalling more than $1.1 million in fines.

As of Dec. 30, the fine for Enco Construction Ltd. was $8,529.67, however, all four actions have been complied by the company.  

On Sept. 12, 2024, Secure Traffic Control Ltd. had two traffic control persons (TCPs) on the scene with the City of Kelowna for a municipal water main upgrade project at the four-way intersection of Rio Drive and Clifton Road. When WorkSafeBC was at the project, they noticed the two TCPs were directing traffic while standing in the intersection open to the travelled portion of a roadway. This is a high-risk violation and also a repeated one.

"Roadside work, or working in the 'cone zone', is dangerous," the press release reads. "From 2013 to 2023, WorkSafeBC accepted 1247 claims for Road Traffic Controllers. 210 of those were for serious injuries and five were fatal injuries. In addition, WorkSafeBC imposed five administrative penalties totalling $134,715 in 2024 to employers for violations related to road construction and maintenance."

Secure Traffic Control Ltd. was fined $4,587.9 and as of Jan. 16, 2025, it had complied with the four actions required by WorkSafeBC.

Editor's note: An earlier story reported that the two compaines had not complied with the actions given by WorkSafeBC, this has been amended.