The general manager of Vancouver's Olympic stadium claimed he did not know about the death of a janitor until almost two years after it happened.

Howard Crosley said the Nov. 13, 2006 collapse of a Modern Cleaners' worker at B.C. Place and her subsequent death at hospital "came up to my attention" after a worker notified WorkSafeBC on Oct. 6, 2008.

Modern broke the Workers' Compensation Act, which states employers must immediately report severe injuries or deaths of workers.

Crosley said he did not know details of the incident, but conceded: "We neglected to (report) it, I guess. I don't know why we didn't do it. It should have been done, but it wasn't."

"It was a function of Modern to report it to WorkSafe," he said. "We didn't realize that we had an obligation. So we know about it now."

B.C. Place security supervisor Eric Borglund filed a Nov. 20, 2006 incident report that said B.C. Place purchasing manager Tom Jackson witnessed Borglund interview a Modern supervisor.

No first aid attendant was in the stadium at the time of the incident.

Modern continues to work for B.C. Place, despite the 2006 incident and older safety issues.

Minutes of a Dec. 20, 2004 B.C. Place health and safety committee meeting attended by Crosley said there was a "grave concern" because Modern workers had no radio communications and inadequate first aid coverage.

Bob Mackin reports for Vancouver 24 hours.