A Christchurch bakery has been fined and ordered to pay more than $245,000 after serious safety failures led to a worker’s hand being pulled into industrial machine rollers, resulting in the amputation of his index finger.
According to WorkSafe, the incident occurred in April 2023 at French Bakery when the 41-year-old father’s hand was caught in the rollers. In addition to losing his index finger, his thumb was partially amputated, and his middle finger was crushed.
Following an investigation, the company admitted to breaches of workplace health and safety laws. The Christchurch District Court fined French Bakery $200,000 and ordered it to pay $45,500 in reparations, 1News has reported.
The injured worker, who has permanent name suppression, said the impact of the incident went far beyond physical injury.
“It did not merely affect my hand”.
“It shattered my livelihood, destabilised my family’s future, and left me with a permanent physical and emotional wound,” he said, as quoted by 1news,
WorkSafe identified three major failings in the case: lockout failures, incomplete risk assessments, and gaps in training and supervision.
‘The nightmare scenario’
According to 1News, WorkSafe principal inspector Shaun Millar said the injury occurred when one worker turned the machine on while another had his hand inside it.
“That’s the nightmare scenario that proper lockout procedures are designed to prevent," he said, 1News has quoted.
“Lockout/tagout isn’t optional. It’s a fundamental safety control.”
Investigators found that workers were cleaning and maintaining machinery without safeguards to ensure it could not be activated while exposed to moving parts. Some staff had not received adequate training or proper equipment.
Although risk assessments had identified certain hazards, they reportedly “completely missed” the crushing danger posed by the rotating components inside the machine.
Millar warned that superficial safety checks can be dangerous.
“A tick-box risk assessment is worse than useless,” he said, explaining it “creates a false sense of security,” as quoted by 1News.
“You need to systematically identify every way a worker could be harmed, including during cleaning, maintenance and repairs, not just during normal operation.”
WorkSafe said that despite extensive documentation at the bakery, workers reported they had not seen lockout tags in use, did not know where equipment was kept, and had not been trained in key safety procedures.
“This wasn’t a freak accident,” Millar added. “This was entirely preventable,” 1News has quoted.
“Every business with machinery needs to ask themselves: Could this happen here? If you can’t confidently answer ‘no’, you have work to do.
“The solutions aren't complicated or expensive. The cost of not doing it is measured in workers' lives and livelihoods,” 1News has quoted.
ISSUE
Leave a Comment