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$500,000 penalties after workplace accident…
The District Court has fined and penalised an employer after one of its workers was tragically killed in a factory.
The worker was cleaning a machine when the machine was operating and got dragged into the machine and killed.
The Court found that there were no guards on the machine, nor any interlock device which would stop the machine operating while it was open to be cleaned. The company had previously been given an order to install an interlock device, but had not done so.
The Court fined the company $367,500 and ordered it to pay reparation and lost income of $141,000 to the spouse of the victim.
The employer had not taken appropriate steps to make their machinery safe. Since the accident the employer has installed guards on the machine and the machine is now safe, but that is no comfort to the family of the deceased.
Alan Knowsley
Health & Safety Lawyer
Wellington
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