KEY POINTS:
The Department of Labour is pushing for much heavier penalties in workplace safety prosecutions where employees are injured.
It put its views at two sentencings in Christchurch District Court yesterday, urging Judge Patricia Costigan to impose fines of $65,000 and $84,500 against two companies.
It suggested starting points for the fines of $100,000 and $130,000 before allowance was made for the companies' early guilty pleas and clean work-accident records.
The judge did not impose such heavy fines, opting for $15,000 and $20,000 plus reparations payments to the injured workers.
She noted the difficult financial situation of Don Grey Engineering in Maunsell St, Opawa, Christchurch and commented: "A deterrent penalty is not meant to put the defendant out of business."
Department prosecutor Mike Hargreaves said heavier fines were appropriate because Parliament had passed legislation in 2003 increasing the maximum fine from $50,000 to $250,000.
But counsel for the firms described the Labour Department's proposed fines as "grossly excessive" and "grossly inflated".
Judge Costigan fined Don Grey Engineering $20,000 and ordered it to pay reparation of $10,000 to a staff member who lost the index and middle finger of his left hand, and had his ring finger crushed.
The man had been operating a press used to crush and bend steel.
Mr Hargreaves said the company had been told in 2002 to get a safety guard for the machine and that had been done, but the guard was not being used when the accident happened last March.
Defence counsel Brian Nathan said the company was not cavalier in its approach, but accepted that it had the responsibility to ensure staff used the guard provided.
The company's profitability had declined since 2004 as a result of the competition small manufacturing companies face from China, and recently a contract had also been lost to Mexico.
"The irony is that these jobs are going to places where the concept of interlocking guards is totally unknown."
Using the guard made the machine clumsier to operate but there was no financial incentive for employees to remove the guard to increase productivity, he said.
The judge noted that the accident victim was now self-conscious about his injury, particularly in restaurants where someone had to cut his food because he could not hold a knife and fork. He had noticed his moods had changed and he had become more aggressive, and had trouble sleeping.
Judge Costigan said she took into account the fact that the same hazard had been pointed out to the company earlier.
Don Grey Engineering and Cookie Time had pleaded guilty to charges of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of an employee at work.
Cookie Time was prosecuted when a woman went underneath a moving conveyor belt to clean it and her cleaning rag, her hair, and then her arm became caught.
A bone in her arm was broken and she was in hospital for a week.
Defence counsel Philip James said the conveyor had been operating for 15 to 20 years without incident. Staff had been told not to go underneath it and there was no need for anyone to go under it.
The company immediately put in a guard after the accident.
Judge Costigan noted the company had paid for the shortfall in the staff member's wages while she was on ACC and unable to work for three months.
She fined the company $15,000 and ordered it to pay reparations for medical costs and emotional harm totalling $5961.
- NZPA
