Workers at the Lakeland and Babine Forest Products sawmills are still looking for answers.
A class action lawsuit has been launched (previous story) against the Province of BC and WorksafeBC saying the group failed to protect the workers, and botched the ensuing explosion investigations.
Bruce Germyn suffered burns on 35% of his body, brain injury, vision damage and hearing loss in the Lakeland Mills blast.
As one of 10 plaintiffs listed on the lawsuit, he says WorkSafeBC needs to be held accountable.
“Because as it stands, I watched two brothers die. I watched 22 others injured just at Lakeland. It was because no one cared about the industry enough to step up and say ‘no we need to protect the workers’”.
He says WorkSafeBC allowed the mills to police themselves despite warning signs and complaints from workers. Last year’s Coroners inquest heard workers complained openly to management about the dust problem at Lakeland.
“There was someone that came out of the union office, and she blatantly said it was the dirtiest saw mill she had ever been in. That was just prior to it blowing up. We were hung out to dry.”
An anonymous call was made to WorkSafeBC after the Burns Lake explosion months before Lakeland’s own, warning the agency that the mill was in poor shape. Germyn points to that call, and the resulting lacklustre follow up visit from WorkSafe inspectors, as “turning a blind eye on industry”
Germyn testified and sat in on the entire Lakeland Mills Coroner’s Inquest last year. “We sat there daily and listened to a lot of jaw dropping informations being presented and it’s plain and simple that WorkSafe needs to do their job and project workers.”
Since a full public inquiry was never called, Germyn hopes this lawsuit is able to hold WorkSafeBC accountable. Employees in BC are legally blocked form suing an employer if hurt on the job, with WorkSafeBC given the responsibility of protecting workers.
In addition to damages, the lawsuit is calling for WorkSafeBC to admit its investigations into the explosions were negligent and that the organization breached fiduciary duties to the workers.
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