Steel firm fined for crushed limbs

Photo / Greg Bowker

One worker lost part of his finger, another had his foot broken by a piece of falling steel, and two others had their skin stripped from their fingers in unreported workplace accidents at one of New Zealand's leading steel manufacturers.

For six separate health and safety offences, Kiwi Steel NZ Limited was fined $237,500 - described by the union as "one of the most significant fines" handed out for non-fatality - in the Manukau District Court last week.

The Department of Labour said the company failed to report four accidents, and was found out only after one of the injured employees contacted the department.

"All employers are required by law to notify the department about accidents at work.

"We found out about one of these breaches when an injured employee phoned our contact centre and also made inquiries with ACC," said the department's acting service manager for Manukau, Jason Papuni.

"Employers have a duty to take all practical steps to make sure that employees are able to go to work with the peace of mind that they won't be injured while going about their daily duties."

The judgment found there was "no evidence of any effective preventative measures being put in place, at least until after the department had become involved".

Kiwi Steel was also ordered to pay $16,500 in reparation to two injured employees and fined $87,500 on the two charges of failing to adequately guard machines in the workplace.

Hundreds of people are injured while using machinery that is not adequately guarded every year, the Labour Department says.

Fritz Drissner, health and safety co-ordinator at the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union, said the union is concerned about an "industry practice" of paying managers bonuses if their departments had no reports of accidents.

"This leads to non-reporting of accidents and non-reporting of near misses," he said.

"The union has been concerned about this lack of safety culture in the industry for some time.

"Workers are discouraged to report incidents by their managers because it is directly linked to their monetary bonus, and that's why there's a culture of fear and intimidation around reporting of injuries."

Despite the maximum fines for workplace health and safety breaches being raised from $50,000 to $250,000 in 2003, most had continued to range between $40,000 and $70,000, he said.

"This is one of the most significant fines we've had to date, and it will serve as a wake-up call to employers," Mr Drissner added.

In the last six months, 13 companies, including Kiwi Steel, have been fined $455,012 for machine guarding failures by the courts.

Kiwi Steel could not be reached for comment last night.

ACCIDENT TALLY

* Aug 2006: Serious thumb injury while using mini-slitter

* Aug 2007: Foot crushed by sheet of steel

* Apr 2009: Finger amputated while working on an industrial guillotine

* Aug 2009: Hand caught and dragged into unguarded cutting knives of a mini-slitter