A Bay of Plenty company has been fined after a worker suffered serious burns in a 2018 incident which required the ends of three of her fingers to be amputated.
Te Puke pet food manufacturer Addiction Food NZ Limited was sentenced under the Health and Safety at Work Act and fined $132,000 in the Tauranga District Court on Wednesday.
The victim had been attempting to change film stuck at the top of a machine used to pack pet food when her fingers were crushed between two heat panels.
Her index finger, middle finger and thumb received third-degree burns and later had to be amputated above the middle joints.
The victim sustained life-changing injuries because the machine was not guarded to industry standards, WorkSafe’s Acting Chief Inspector Danielle Henry said.
"It's highly disappointing that a company WorkSafe had seriously engaged with on multiple occasions still failed to take health and safety seriously, allowing its workers to operate dangerous machinery with no safeguarding."
The investigation also found the company had failed to ensure workers were properly trained, and that health and safety documentation was clearly communicated and understood by workers.
Henry said before the incident, WorkSafe had issued Addiction Food NZ three improvement notices and one prohibition notice relating to health and safety systems.
"The issuing of four notices on other machinery in the workplace should have been a clear indication to Addiction Food NZ Limited that they needed to be completing full risk assessment of machinery before allowing workers to operate it," she said.
"WorkSafe had given this company a clear directive to get its health and safety in order. It did not take appropriate action and a worker has needlessly suffered for their laxness."
