The Christchurch District Court has fined an employer
$75,000 and ordered it to pay reparation of $35,000 to an injured worker after
a guard on a machine was removed resulting in a hand injury to the employee.
The Judge held that removal of the guard was an
inexcusable action and the serious injury to the employee was totally
foreseeable. Of interest also was that
the manufacturer of the machine was also fined ($60,000) because the machine
should not have been able to operate with the guard removed. An interlock devise should have prevented the
machine from operating. The company was
not ordered to pay any reparation to the victim because the employer’s act in
removing the guard was the operative cause of the injury and this was beyond
the control of the company.
This prosecution of the manufacturer for failing to comply
with safety obligations when it manufactured the piece of equipment was
apparently the first time this type of charge had been laid under the Health
& Safety at Work Act.
Alan
Knowsley
Employment Lawyer Wellington
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