Kiwi Steel Fined $237,500

MEDIA RELEASE
29 MAY 2011
Kiwi Steel Fined $237,500 For Multiple Health And Safety Breaches

One of New Zealand’s leading steel manufacturers has been fined nearly a quarter of a million dollars for repeated breaches of workplace health and safety legislation.

Kiwi Steel NZ Limited was fined $237,500 in the Manukau District Court for six separate health and safety offences.

Kiwi Steel NZ failed to report four separate accidents to the Department of Labour. The company was also fined on two charges of failing to adequately guard machines in the workplace. All told, two workers suffered de-gloving injuries to their fingers (which involves skin being stripped from the fingers), one worker had part of a finger amputated and one worker had his foot broken by a piece of falling steel.

The Judge said there was “no evidence of any effective preventative measures being put in place, at least until after the Department had become involved” following the most recent of the four accidents.

Kiwi Steel NZ was also ordered to pay a total of $16,500 in reparations to two of the injured employees. The Judge was “driven to the conclusion that the defendant adopted a laissez-faire attitude to health and safety issues.”

“Kiwi Steel NZ put its employees at risk, and failed to notify the Department of Labour about these workplace accidents,” says Department of Labour Acting Service Manager for Manukau, Jason Papuni.

“All employers are required by law to notify the Department about accidents at work. We found out about one of these breaches when an injured employee phoned our contact centre and also made enquiries with ACC,” says Mr Papuni.

Every year hundreds of people are injured while using machinery that is not adequately guarded.

“Employers have a duty to take all practicable steps to make sure that employees are able to go to work with the peace of mind that they won’t be injured while going about their daily duties,” says Mr Papuni.

The judge fined Kiwi Steel a total of $87,500 on the two charges of failing to adequately guard machines in the workplace. This means that in the last six months, the courts have levied fines of $455,012 on 13 companies (including Kiwi Steel) for machine guarding failures.

ENDS

Note to Editor
• Kiwi Steel NZ Limited was convicted on two charges under Section 6 and four charges under Section 25(3)(a) of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.
•
• The details of the accidents are as follows:
•
In August 2006 an employee suffered serious injuries to his right thumb, while using a mini-slitter - a machine used to cut sheets of steel into narrower strips,
In August 2007 an employee’s foot was crushed by a sheet of steel.
In April 2009 an employee’s finger on his right hand was amputated while he was working on an industrial guillotine
In August 2009 an employee’s right hand got caught and dragged into the unguarded cutting knives of a mini-slitter.

Section 6 of the of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 states: Every employer shall take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of employees while at work; and in particular shall take all practicable steps to—
(a) provide and maintain for employees a safe working environment; and
(b) provide and maintain for employees while they are at work facilities for their safety and health; and
(c) ensure that plant used by any employee at work is so arranged, designed, made, and maintained that it is safe for the employee to use; and
(d) ensure that while at work employees are not exposed to hazards arising out of the arrangement, disposal, manipulation, organisation, processing, storage, transport, working, or use of things—
(i) in their place of work; or
(ii) near their place of work and under the employer's control; and
(e) develop procedures for dealing with emergencies that may arise while employees are at work.

Section 25(3)(a) of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 states: If there occurs any serious harm or accident to which this subsection applies, the employer, self-employed person, or principal concerned must,—
(a) as soon as possible after the occurrence becomes known to the employer, self-employed person, or principal, notify the Secretary of the occurrence.

• The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 is available online: http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1992/0096/latest/DLM278829.html
•

© Scoop Media