A construction worker named Hilit Mutlu died last week when he fell through a hole on the second floor of U of T Scarborough’s new $70 million Instructional Centre, plummeting 10 metres to the basement. The accident occurred on Friday, March 12.

Mutlu, a recent immigrant from Turkey, died later that day when he was rushed to Sunnybrook.

“This is actually the second fatality with this group of companies and the second fatality as a result of a fall,” said a spokesperson for the Ontario Federation of Labour.

In June 2008, Petro, a co-worker of Mutlu, fell three metres from a cantilevered portion of a support beam at a condo site.

OFL president Sid Ryan called for a police investigation of the accident to see if criminal charges should be laid against Mutlu’s employer, Red 2000 Structures Inc., for failing to keep the workplace safe..

Ryan described the incident as “another preventable death.”

“All we’re saying is that we want a criminal investigation and only if evidence warrants should there be charges. What we’re looking specifically is for an investigation through the Bill C-35 amendment, which places a legal obligation under the criminal code around employer negligence,” said the OFL spokesperson.

Last December 24, another four Toronto construction workers fell to their deaths when scaffolding collapsed. The OFL called for a criminal investigation under Bill C-45.

The Bill amended the Criminal Code of Canada to allow for the prosecution of corporate executives, directors, and managers who neglect to uphold their responsibilities to make and keep workplaces healthy and safe.

The death of Mutlu coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Hogg’s Hollow disaster, commemorating the death of five Italian immigrant workers who died while constructing a tunnel in 1960. The death caused public outrage and mobilized the Italian community to change health and safety laws.

Ontario tallied 10 fall-related construction worker deaths in 2009, according to the Labour Ministry.

Tim Legault contributed reporting for this article.

A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the name of the worker who died as Ali. In fact, his name is Hilit Mutlu. The Varsity regrets the error.