North Island Mussels fined $219K after worker suffers horrific eye injury

North Island Mussels Limited was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court. Photo / File

A company was fined and ordered to pay reparations after an injury at a mussel processing plant led to a worker's eye being removed.

The worker was decanting a cleaning product in January last year when a piece of tubing hit him in the eye.

The corrosive cleaning product and the impact from the tubing caused such major damage his eye had to be removed.

The worker's scarring was so severe he could not be fitted with a prosthetic eye.

North Island Mussels was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court today. The company was fined $219,375 and ordered to pay reparations of $60,000.

The business was sentenced under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 for failing to ensure the health and safety of workers. The maximum penalty is a fine of $1.5 million.

WorkSafe said the product should not have had to be decanted at all, and it was reasonably practicable for the product to be hardwired and plumbed.

WorkSafe's investigation found the company had also failed to identify risks and put in place suitable controls, failed to ensure the availability of protective equipment and failed to have an effective system in place to monitor the equipment's use.

"Protective equipment should not be the go to safety solution for using hazardous substances," WorkSafe's Simon Humphries said.

"If there is a smarter and safer way of doing a job, and it is reasonably practicable for it to be implemented then that is the expectation of the Health and Safety at Work Act."