A Canadian PCBY who sent more than a dozen workers into a job site that they knowlingly knew was contaminated with asbestos has been fined $20,000 and banned from operating asbestos remediation businesses.
Vivesh Kochner, has been accused by WorkSafe British Columbia, of sending as many as 15 contractors into the contaminated site on the 11th of November in 2019.
He was aware that the work site had orders to shut down due to the presence of asbestos, but proceeded to send workers in without appropriate personal protective equipment.
“Kochher did not advise the third-party contractor or its workers of the presence of asbestos at the work site, or that there was a stop-work order in place,” read a statement from WorkSafeBC.
Mr Koccher pleaded guilty to charges under the Canadian Workers’ Compensation Act, and in addition to being fined $20,000, has been banned from owning or running any business that deals with asbestos materials for three years.
Prosecutors said that Mr Koccher had hired third-party contractors on the day in question in an attempt to avoid detection.
Mr Koccher’s company has since been “voluntarily dissolved”.
“Crown counsel submitted that all of the above was done with the intention of avoiding the cost and responsibility of cleaning up the asbestos-contaminated work site,” WorkSafeBC said.
The organisation noted that it had accepted close to 600 claims for asbestos work-related deaths in the past ten years.