increase font size
The machinery the worker's hand became trapped in was unguarded.
It took 10 minutes for co-workers to free the victim’s hand from the machine.
A worker may never have full use of her hand again after it became stuck in an unguarded machine at a meat processor.
Fresh Meats NZ Limited was sentenced at the Napier District Court on Friday and ordered to pay $293,000 in fines and reparation after a worker’s hand was caught in machinery.
The slaughter and processing company processes over 250,000 lambs a year.
In November 2018, a worker, cleaning the chains used to move carcasses when her arm became trapped in the moving parts.
It took the victim’s co-workers 10 minutes to help remove her hand from the chain. As a result of the incident she suffered extensive lacerations and trauma to muscles, tendons, nerves, blood vessels and bones in her right hand and wrist.
WorkSafe acting chief inspector Danielle Henry said the worker’s injuries were so serious she would never recover full mobility in her hand. WorkSafe’s investigation following the incident found that the machinery was unguarded.
“The importance of machine guarding has been a focus area across all industries for many years,” said Henry.
“Though a task instruction sheet prepared by the company clearly stated that machinery should only be cleaned when it was turned off, our investigation found it was common practice for staff to clean the machinery while it was moving.
“Fresh Meats NZ Limited had gone so far as to identify a hazard, but then did not make sure the safe system of work was in place.
“Writing down a health and safety plan is one thing, but it must be implemented.”
Ngai Tahu's legal action seeking self-determination (rangatiratanga) over fresh water could have huge implications for the future of farming, the viability of farming businesses, and our wider rural communities, says Federated Farmers national vice president Colin Hurst.
WorkSafe New Zealand is calling on farmers to consider how vehicles move inside their barns and sheds, following a sentencing for a death at one of South Canterbury’s biggest agribusinesses.
Following a sentencing for a death at a South Canterbury agribusiness, WorkSafe New Zealand is calling on farmers to consider how vehicles move inside their barns and sheds.
OPINION: The end-of-year booze-up at the posh Northern Club in Auckland must have been a beauty, as the legal 'elite' let their hair down and showed us how entitled and political some in the judiciary really are.
WorkSafe is recommending the dairy industry reassess its use of slide pulsators, following a recent death in a Waikato milking shed.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.
Undoubtedly the doyen of rural culture, always with a wry smile, our favourite ginger ninja, Te Radar, in conjunction with his wife Ruth Spencer, has recently released an enchanting, yet educational read centred around rural New Zealand in one hundred objects.
Farmers are being urged to keep on top of measures to control Cysticerus ovis - or sheep measles - following a spike in infection rates.
For more than 50 years, Waireka Research Station at New Plymouth has been a hub for globally important trials of fungicides, insecticides and herbicides, carried out on 16ha of orderly flat plots hedged for protection against the strong winds that sweep in from New Zealand’s west coast.
There's a special sort of energy at the East Coast Farming Expo, especially when it comes to youth.
OPINION: Your old mate welcomes the proposed changes to local government but notes it drew responses that ranged from the reasonable…
OPINION: A press release from the oxygen thieves running the hot air symposium on climate change, known as COP30, grabbed your…
