Fines send safety message to industry

24 July 2008

The Department of Labour says fines imposed on two Blenheim companies, after a teenage schoolboy worker was injured when he fell 6.5 metres, sends a clear message to employers about the importance of preventing injuries.

Workplace Nelson Service Manager Annette Baxter says the case is an example of how important it is for employers and contractors to ensure workers’ safety. This includes ensuring young, untrained workers are adequately supervised and that hazards are properly assessed and controls implemented before work commences.

“Unfortunately we see falls from heights far too often – resulting in injuries that could have been prevented,” Mrs Baxter says.

“Employers have a positive duty to clearly identify hazards in workplaces, to determine whether they are significant and if they are, to eliminate them, isolate them, or minimise them.”

District Court Judge MJ Behrens QC has fined Eckford Engineering 2002 Ltd $48,000, after the company pleaded guilty to failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety its employee while at work.

Judge Behrens also fined Giesen Wines Ltd $30,000 with solicitor’s costs of $250 and Court costs of $130, after the company pleaded guilty to failing to take all practicable steps to ensure an employee of a contractor was not harmed while doing work that its contractor was engaged to do.

Each company was also ordered to pay the victim $1000 for emotional harm.

General and structural engineering company Eckford Engineering 2002 Ltd (the employer of the victim) was engaged by Giesen Wines Ltd (the principal) to build, erect and fit walkways at the Riverlands Estate site in Blenheim. The walkways were manufactured in the Eckford Engineering workshop.

On 20 September 2007, two Eckford employees, a father and son, were working fitting and securing the walkways in place. About 4.20pm the son, then a 17-year-old schoolboy, was walking on the walkway and fell through a hole 39cm x 63cm to the ground 6.5 metres below. He suffered a compression fraction to his L1 vertebrae and a broken bone in his foot.

The young man had temporary rods attached to his vertebrae but they have now been removed, and remarkably, he has no ongoing medical complaints from the injury, except at times some minor back pain. He is now in full time employment.

Judge Behrens said the accident should not have been allowed to happen and could have been avoided by common sense and obvious safety precautions.

He said that while culpability was high, the harm to the victim was not permanent.

The two companies had pleaded guilty, had no previous convictions or warnings under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, and had shown remorse and taken steps to prevent similar injuries occurring in future.

ENDS
For further information contact Ann Howarth, Department of Labour External Communications, on 04 915 4119 or 0274 422 141.