Manufacturer's Specifications: The Count That Keeps Showing Up in Alberta OHS Charges
Manufacturer's Specifications: The Count That Keeps Showing Up in Alberta OHS Charges
October 2026•4 min read
Manufacturer's Specifications: The Count That Keeps Showing Up in Alberta OHS Charges
I read Alberta's list of pending OHS charges every week. I try to spot trends and issues that are relevant or could be a cause for concern for our team or others in the safety industry
One type of count keeps coming up. On October 27, 2026, I went through the list and counted 33 pending entries. Nineteen include at least one count about manufacturer's specifications, or specifications certified by a professional engineer. I counted each entry once, even when it names several companies. It is a snapshot of allegations, not a measure of how often this happens across Alberta.
The equipment ranges from ladders, roof anchors and scaffolds to tractors, pressure washers and tents, on roofing jobs, farms, rental yards, oil sites and shops. Big companies and small ones.
The newest file
On October 14, 2026, Alberta OHS laid eight charges against Guillevin International Co. after a worker died in Edmonton on October 21, 2024. According to the government's description, the worker was testing a cylinder for leaks with nitrogen gas under high pressure when the end cap ejected and struck him. He was fatally injured.
These are allegations only. Nothing has been proven in court, and the company's first appearance is scheduled for December 3, 2026, in the Alberta Court of Justice in Edmonton. The charges allege the company:
did not protect the worker from being struck by a projected or thrown object, or provide safeguards against objects thrown from machinery
did not have a guard or cage on the cylinder rod under pressure
allowed the worker to be positioned "in the line of fire"
did not have a pressure gauge or a pressure release valve on the cylinder rod
did not use engineering controls to eliminate or control the hazard
did not follow the manufacturer's specifications, in this case the Kress "Cylinder Rebuild Procedure, Strut/Suspension"
In a statement to CBC News, the company said: "This was a tragic accident, and as we mark the second anniversary this week, our thoughts remain with our colleague's family and co-workers. We have co-operated fully with the Occupational Health and Safety authorities since the accident and will continue to do so."
A worker died, and his family and co-workers are living with that. The public summary does not give enough detail to judge what caused the death. I will not guess. I am writing about it for the question it raises for the rest of us.
The question for your crew
If you run 10 or 100 people, you probably do not rebuild suspension struts. But you run equipment where the manufacturer's instructions matter, some of it rented, older or modified.
Having a manual is not the same as having the right procedure available, understood and followed. Those are three checks. When an investigator asks what the manufacturer says and how you knew the worker followed it, "it's in the binder" is a weak answer.
What I would do this week
Do not fix everything at once. Pick one task where a missed step could seriously hurt someone and work through it with the supervisor and a worker who does the job.
1. Find the right instructions.
Get the procedure for that model, setup and task. If it is missing or unclear, sort that out first.
2. Put the critical checks in the task checklist or FLHA.
Do not copy the whole manual in. Pull the steps that control serious hazards, like pressure limits, guarding, lockout and setup, into pre-task check items. Keep the full procedure accessible. Here is our plain guide to field-level hazard assessments: What is an FLHA?
3. Record the review, then verify it.
Write down which procedure and version the worker reviewed and when. A sign-off alone does not prove understanding. Have the worker walk through the critical steps, and watch the task at least once.
4. Deal with line of fire at the setup, not just the stance.
Ask what could release, which way it would go and who could be in the path. Eliminate or control it with the equipment first, through guards, cages, relief and restraints. Then set up an exclusion zone. Telling someone to stand to the side is not a control.
5. Check guards and gauges before the task.
Make sure they are there, right for the job, in good condition and inspected as required. If a required control is missing or in doubt, the task stops until fixed, and supervisors back that up every time.
6. Keep the procedure where the work happens.
Paper at the equipment works. So does a phone, if the document is current and opens without cell service. A binder 40 minutes away does not.
Where FLOWforms fits
We built FLOWforms because we are safety people who got tired of forms nobody used. FLOWforms has checklists built right into the FLHA, so crews can work through the critical steps on a phone in the field or on a computer in the office, and the records stay organized for COR. It is meant to be quick for crews to use.
Software does not make a task safe. Good equipment, competent workers and supervisors who check the work do that. A good system makes the right steps easier to find and harder to skip.
If you want to see how that would look for your crew, reach out at flowforms.info.
Sources
Government of Alberta, Charges under OHS legislation (pending charges list, reviewed October 27, 2026):https://www.alberta.ca/charges-under-ohs-legislation
CBC News, "Electrical distributor charged in 2024 workplace death in Edmonton," October 23, 2026:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-workplace-death-9.7393115
