Case Study - Paradise Boat Works
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Seneca College *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
1283
Subject
Industrial Engineering
Date
Feb 20, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
5
Uploaded by ProfApeMaster1003
Paradise Boat Works Case Study
Scenario
Paradise Boatworks is located just outside of Baysville on the Lake
of Bays in Muskoka. It manufactures classic mahogany runabouts and makes repairs to these high-end classic wooden boats and to fibreglass boats. It also repairs snowmobiles during the winter. This company, which has a superb reputation for the quality of its work, was just sold to the owner of the company that you work for
– Kris Kraft Sales and Boatworks in Peterborough. Apparently the owner of Paradise was just diagnosed with a terminal disease and wanted to sell his business as soon as possible and the price was too good for the owner of Kris Kraft to pass up.
You are a manager at Kris Kraft and are also responsible for the health and safety program at your company. Your company has a stellar safety record but within hours of the finalization of the sale
of Paradise to Kris Kraft, the Ministry of Labour has issued a stop-
work order against Paradise and has shut down the main workshop, where repairs are made to fibreglass boats, due to a ventilation issue. Your boss at Kris Kraft is quite concerned and has asked you to go immediately and check things out at Paradise. As he has heard some gossip in the boating community about the working conditions at Paradise, he asked you to have a good look around, report on any health and safety issues that you
find and make some immediate recommendations.
By quickly visiting the company and interviewing staff, you were able to determine the following:
1. Workers are expected to supply their own safety masks, filters and any other piece of safety equipment. Safety equipment, for the most part, does not meet the minimum standard for the type of work being done at the company.
2. While there is ventilation equipment that can reduce fumes and sawdust in the main fibreglass workshop, it has not worked for a
few years, cannot be repaired and the company had not made any effort to replace it in order to keep operating costs at a minimum. There appears to be fibreglass residue and sawdust everywhere except in the separate workshop where the high-end mahogany runabouts are manufactured.
3. If an employee is injured on the job, he or she goes home without pay until well enough to resume work. There are currently three employees ill at home with health problems related to the air quality in the workshop and all three have been off for more than three months and have not been paid since the day that they left. There is an additional person, a very skilled and well-respected supervisor, who has been off due to stress for 4 months as he could no longer deal with the conditions that the employees were subjected to or with the owner who was described by staff as an "abusive tyrant."
4. Several employees have tried to initiate a union organizing campaign in the hopes that unionization would help to improve the working conditions but these employers have been fired and the firm threatened to shut down if workers continue to organize or attempt to submit complaints to the Department of Labour. No accidents or environment-related illnesses of any kind have been reported to the Ministry of Labour in over 5 years and you could not find any health and safety records at the company.
5. The health and safety committee has also not met in over 2 years and no one wanted to serve on the committee because the owner would not accept recommendations from the committee, was abusive to committee members and expected members to work extra time to make up for the time taken for committee meetings.
6. Unwanted chemicals related to boat repair work have been dumped on the ground in a back lot and are leaching out into a small creek that runs into the Lake of Bays.
Given that this company is operational year round and is located in a resort area where most employment is seasonal, employees need these jobs to survive and take care of their families and
believe that they have had no other choice but to continue to work.
Questions
What recommendations would you make to immediately improve health and safety at Paradise Boatworks?
Answers
As per the case of Paradise Boat Works I would bring the following recommendations to my boss (new owner);
Assign a supervisory team member at Kris Kraft to work with a supervisor at Paradise to research and develop a list of required safety equipment along with documented proof that the equipment listed would meet the minimum standards for the type of work being done.
Review which safety equipment could be purchased by the business and provided to the staff at an acceptable cost level. For any remaining equipment
required that may be too costly for the business to absorb explore an interest/fee free payday loan agreement where Kris Kraft/Paradise would procure the required safety equipment on behalf of the workers with payments being taken off each pay (i.e. 20% of item cost from each pay period for 5 pay periods) until 100% of the cost of the equipment is recuperate.
Implement a safety equipment tracking system which lists the safety equipment that each position is required to have, when equipment was last replaced and any applicable expiry dates for equipment currently in use to ensure all equipment meets standards in the future.
Contract a industrial cleaning contractor to come in to conduct a through cleaning/remediation of the main fibreglass workshop.
Analyze the ventilation equipment in the high-end workshop for its capacity to possibly be reconfigured to also provide service to the fibreglass workshop
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
simultaneously to limit costs associated with a complete replacement of the current system in that area. If this option is not viable, explore the possibility of moving the fibreglass workshop in with the high-end production workshop.
If the space does not persist replacement of the ventilation equipment is required; recommend looking into possible government grants to help cover this cost.
Reach out to the 3 currently ill workers and inform them of their rights under the OHSA, particularly as they pertain to Worker’s Compensation/WSIB. Provide them with the required documentation and ensure that they have the required supports in completing them. Have these forms completed and submitted to WSIB immediately.
Review all company records and speak to each staff member to determine if there were any other cases of workplace injuries/illnesses which went unreported and unpaid and provide them with the similar supports to complete a WSIB claim.
Reach out directly to WSIB to explain the situation and inform them of the claims being completed and submitted.
Contact supervisor currently on stress leave inviting him to a meeting. Begin with a wellness check and confirmation that he has received any supports or services required to help him work through his stress/mental health. If no services were offered, provide him with a list of resources and access to the Kris Kraft Employee Assistance Program. Updated him with all the changes that have taken place at the ownership level and encourage him to consider the possibility of returning under these new conditions in the near future, emphasizing how invaluable his experience, knowledge and skills are to the future of the operation.
Immediately make all current staff aware through a meeting and/or formal bulletin to be made available through a on-site safety bulletin board of their rights regarding unionization as well as making claims to the Ministry of Labour regarding workplace occurrences which may be in violation of the Employment Standards Act or Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Begin a health and safety record tracking system emphasizing to all staff that moving forward any incident; no matter how minor it may seem, needs to be reported to the appropriate supervisor/health and safety representative and recorded within the health and safety record tracking system.
Ask all current staff and management to see who was sitting on the Health and Safety Committee and determine who; if any, possess provincial certification. If there is a shortfall in certified representatives training must be arranged immediately to ensure that the correct number of certified representatives are employed.
Immediately re-activate the Health and Safety Committee and encourage them that the new ownership will adhere to all Occupational Health and Safety regulations as they pertain to working with the Health and Safety Committee and accepting all reports and recommendations submitted.
Immediately stop the practice of dumping unwanted chemicals and pursue advice from industry experts on proper containment and disposal of these chemicals.
Contact the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks to make them aware of the discovery and support them in any investigation which may result.