New Zealand company fined $500,000 over ‘wholly avoidable’ workplace death

A company has been sentenced for safety breaches in New Zealand following the death of a worker in February 2020.

The worker was trying to free a ‘jammed carton in a blast freezer’ when a frame fell on him.

The 61 year-old man was working alone at the time of the incident.

WorkSafe NZ investigated the incident and found the company failed in its duty of protecting the worker, citing ‘poor risk management and a lack of worker engagement’ as factors in the ‘wholly avoidable’ fatal incident.

“The company had overarching health and safety procedures, but they weren’t applied in practice. Having a written process but not following it is the same as having nothing at all,” says WorkSafe’s Head of Specialist Interventions, Dr Catherine Gardner.

The company was fined $502,500 at the Gisborne District Court last week.

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