A Brampton company has been fined and two of its directors have been sentenced to 25 days in jail after pleading guilty to safety violations that caused the death of an employee.

NewMex Canada Inc., a company that imports and sells furniture and accessories, will be required to pay $250,000, and company directors Baldev Purba and Rajinder Saini will each have to spend 25 days in jail, following a Ministry of Labour investigation into the 2013 death of one of their employees.

The worker was moving merchandise using a combination forklift/operator-up platform called an order picker, which had an additional platform attached, supported by the forks and did not have a guardrail around it, according to a ministry court bulletin.

The worker, whose name has not been released, had not been wearing fall protection or safety shoes.

He was found on the floor and pronounced dead. He had died from blunt force trauma to the head, it was later determined.


The ministry investigation found multiple violations of the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act and of Ontario’s Regulation 851, which requires workers who may fall more than three metres to wear a safety belt or harness.

The employees in the warehouse had not received any health and safety training and were not provided with fall protection equipment, according to the ministry.

Purba and Saini both pleaded guilty after being charged with failing to take responsible care to ensure their corporation complied with the Act and with Regulation 851.

They were ordered to serve 25 days in jail on weekends and to take a health and safety course within the next 60 days.

NewMex Canada Inc. pleaded guilty for not providing the worker with information, instruction and supervision related to fall protection and/or working from a height, and for failing to ensure safety measures required by law were executed.