Local asbestos removal company hit with more WorkSafe fines

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A Metro Vancouver asbestos removal company which was handed huge WorkSafe BC fines for safety violations years ago has been hit with another giant financial penalty.

The union representing workers wants firms like this to be subject to a mandatory licencing regime so repeat offenders can be forced out of the business.

You may remember Seattle Environmental Consulting and Skylite Building Maintenance from a court case earlier this year. The companies are both run by Mike Singh. Skylite was given $227,000 in fines from WorkSafe in 2012. WorkSafe took Singh to court and in 2013, he was found in contempt of court for ignoring the WorkSafe order.

Singh appealed the decision. Last February, a judge ruled Singh’s companies are not guilty of contempt for violating the Workers Compensation Act, saying the law is too confusing.

The BC Insulators Union says unsafe practices haven’t stopped since. Another batch of fines totaling nearly $280,000 has been levied against Seattle Environmental. The fines were imposed last December, but just recently reported in WorkSafe’s magazine.

The companies have been cited for 274 violations since 2007.

Lee Loftus with the BC Insulators Union says this company is still exposing people to the cancer-causing fibre. “There’s debris left behind. There are people there that are not protected by respiratory protection. The evidence is clear once again that there are materials that haven’t been disposed of and haven’t been bagged properly. The public, the residents, workers are all at risk of being exposed to asbestos fibre. There is no doubt about that.”

The union can’t understand how these companies are allowed to continue operating, but Loftus admits there’s not much there to stop them.

“There’s some changes which took place with the provincial government a couple years ago where they can do a province-wide order closure, but they haven’t done any of that… They still operate without following the rules. They still get fined for not following the rules and they still can’t collect the money.”

Loftus says it’s time the provincial government steps in and require abatement companies be licenced.

“Take their licence away. Stop this. It’s unbelievable that this can happen. You can’t do it through the Workers Compensation Act because of all of the processes and how they tie it up in the courts. And of course, this year, we had the court say the rules are too complex and that doesn’t make sense to me.”

He says these companies have to be better regulated when lives are at risk. The union adds 60 people died with asbestos-related illness last year.

NEWS 1130 attempted to find a working phone number for either Seattle Environmental Consulting or Skylite Building Maintenance, but we were unable to do so.

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