$60,000 in fines for flouting health and safety law

Monday 18 March 2002

A Porirua company and its managing director were today fined a total of $60,000 after pleading guilty in the Wellington District Court to breaking New Zealand’s health and safety laws.

Kiwi Plastic Company Limited pleaded guilty to seven charges under the Health and Safety in Employment Act and the company's managing director Mr Angelus Tay pleaded guilty to two charges under that Act.

The most serious charge laid by the Occupational Safety and Health Service (OSH) against both the company and its managing director was of knowingly putting an employee at risk.

The charge was laid under section 49 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act - only the fifth time that an employer has been sentenced under this section of the Act. The fine for the section 49 charge was $15,000 in respect of the company and $5000 in respect of Mr Tay.

In sentencing Judge Thompson said that re-reading the summary of facts and the depositions was both "depressing and alarming.

"One might have hoped that the conditions Dickens was writing about might have moved on."

Judge Thompson said the absence of any first aid facilities and lack of reporting of serious accidents added to the picture that the employer demonstrated a callous attitude to the health and safety of his employees.

Under sentencing, Judge Thompson said culpability was high and certainly higher than any previous case he had to deal with.

Judge Thompson said given Mr Tay's history he must impose a penalty that is a particular deterrent to him and his company. If Mr Tay ever came before the court again, it would need to consider moving beyond the penalty of a fine and would need to consider other penalties under the Act.

Speaking after the sentencing, OSH regional service manager Wellington/Kapiti Ted White said the continued flouting of the law by both the company and its managing director was of serious concern. OSH has a policy of zero tolerance to injury and accidents.

“OSH will not hesitate to use the full force of the law when companies and/or individuals knowingly flout health and safety requirements and put their employees at risk.

"There have been only five previous prosecutions made under this Section 49 of the HSE Act with its maximum of $100,000 fine and a possible custodial sentence so the fact the charges were laid under this Section in this case reflects the real criminal nature of the offending by these defendants."

The court was told an OSH inspection of the company’s premises in March 2000 showed an employee using a machine without adequate guarding. This was in spite of an earlier injury accident using the same machine and various improvement and prohibition notices issued by OSH which had been ignored by the company.

OSH said the company and its managing director knew a failure to guard the machine was likely to cause serious harm.

In these circumstances, OSH regarded this failure as truly criminal.

The company and Mr Tay also faced separate charges relating to an accident on March 14 2000 when a worker had a thumb partially amputated after being trapped in a machine. The injured worker had no formal qualifications in machine maintenance nor were procedures in place or appropriate devices available for the ‘locking out’ of machines before attempting to work on them.

This allowed the machine to start while he was working on it.

The company faced further charges of failing to notify serious harm accidents to OSH; failure to provide adequate first aid facilities and failure to comply with an improvement notice in relation to the provision of personal protective clothing for the handling and using of heavy objects and chemicals and solvents.