The District Court has penalised an employer after it
pleaded guilty following the death of one of its employees who fell off a
ladder at work. The worker had climbed
up the ladder to carry out some repairs, but the ladder was not secured and
there was no edge protection where the worker was standing. The worker landed on concrete and suffered a
head injury from which he tragically died a short time later.
The Court awarded $70,000 in reparation be paid to the
employee’s wife and a further $100,000 be paid to his five children
equally.
In addition the Court ordered that the company pay a fine
$506,000, which took into account the guilty plea and remorse shown by the
employer, plus the reparation already paid to the spouse and children and the
support given to the family following the accident. The Court also ordered the company to pay
$36,000 in costs for the prosecution.
Total penalties and costs amounted to $712,000.
The Court said that the company’s culpability was at the
high end of the scale, because it had failed to appreciate in sufficient detail
the risks to employees from working from ladders and it failed to adequately
deal with those risks when they were obvious.
Though the company was working on plans to assess and deal with the
risks, its steps were inadequate, given the simple actions which could have
been taken to prevent the worker’s death.
Employers must assess risks in the workplace and take all
practical steps to eliminate or minimise those risks and a failure to do so
will have a significant impact by way of fines and penalties imposed over and
above the trauma suffered because of a tragic accident.
Alan
Knowsley
Employment
Lawyer Wellington
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