Part of employee's fingers amputated in machine

A timber processing company based in Rotorua was yesterday ordered to pay reparations of $10,000 after one of its employees was seriously injured because the machine he was working on wasn’t adequately guarded.

Lakeland Timber Processors Limited was convicted of breaching the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 in the Rotorua District Court – no fine was handed down because the company has gone into liquidation.

On 17 July last year the employee, a process worker at the factory, put his hand under the guard on the saw machine and accidentally started the saw, amputating the tips of his left index and middle finger.

“While this machine had some guarding, it wasn’t enough to prevent this employee from suffering serious injuries to his left hand,” says the Department of Labour’s Bay of Plenty Service Manager, Murray Thompson.

“We see far too many of these types of accidents – every year hundreds of New Zealand workers are injured because the machines they’re working on are either not guarded or the guarding is not adequate. It is unacceptable.”

The Department has a three-year project under way to reduce the number of serious harm and fatal accidents resulting from the unsafe use of machinery.



ENDS
Notes to Editor

Lakeland Timber Processors Limited was convicted on one charge under Section 6 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.
Section 6 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.
The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 is available online: http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1992/0096/latest/DLM278829.html