A pet food manufacturing company in Te Puke has been fined $132,000 after one of its workers suffered serious burns to her fingers, leading to their amputation.
WorkSafe said today that Addiction FoodNZ appeared at Tauranga District Court on Wednesday after an investigation found that their machinery was not properly guarded.
In June of 2018, a worker was trying to change packing film stuck at the top of a machine when her fingers were crushed and burned between large heat panels used to seal the film.
She suffered third degree burns to her index finger, middle finger and thumb, and they were eventually amputated above the middle joints.
WorkSafe Acting Chief Inspector Danielle Henry said the woman sustained life-changing injuries, and that the company had been warned before.
"Prior to this incident Addiction Food NZ Limited had received three improvement notices and one prohibition notice from WorkSafe relating to health and safety systems," Ms Henry said.
"The issuing of four notices on other machinery in the workplace should have been a clear indication to Addiction Food NZ Limited that they needed to be completing full risk assessment of machinery before allowing workers to operate it.
"It's highly disappointing that a company WorkSafe had seriously engaged with on multiple occasions still failed to take health and safety seriously, allowing its workers to operate dangerous machinery with no safe guarding.
"WorkSafe had given this company a clear directive to get its health and safety in order - it did not take appropriate action and a worker has needlessly suffered for their laxness."
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