Calgary worker fired after YouTube tool toss

A Calgary construction worker has lost his job after tossing a clamp while perched on scaffolding metres above street level — and having the reckless deed posted to YouTube.

The video, which has since been removed from YouTube, was shot on the 29th storey of a condo development last fall and publicized last month.

It showed a worker, wearing coveralls and a hard hat, chatting to a colleague above him who was recording the footage. The worker then tosses a metal clamp across the open air to a co-worker who catches it.

"We were horrified. That's not what this company is all about," said Gary Carew, CEO and chief operating officer of Skyway Canada.

The worker — an industry veteran — who threw the clamp has been fired, said Carew on Friday. The scaffolding contractor launched its own investigation immediately after media reported on the video.

"It was determined that one individual had violated the company's safety procedures and policies and was terminated," Carew told CBC News.

The man who caught the clamp was suspended without pay for four days for not reporting a "near-miss." Skyway determined that he was not a "willing participant" and had "voiced his objections" to the careless act, said Carew.

The third man who was filming everything had already been terminated for an unrelated matter two to three weeks before the YouTube video was publicized.

In July, the YouTube video was shown to Skyway's 500 employees across the country, said Carew. They were led through the company's safety policies on working from heights, falling material and horseplay as a reminder.

"Some of the ladies were in tears in the office after watching the video," said Carew. "That behaviour is not typical of our employees at a job site."

Debris falling from Calgary construction sites has become a serious concern after a piece of metal blew from the top of a development and struck and killed three-year-old Michelle Krsek last summer.