File pic Photo: 123RF
WorkSafe says exposed machinery in a West Auckland bakery was a disaster waiting to happen.
Bakeworks has been fined $36,000 in Waitākere District Court after two workers were injured in January and June 2021.
The incidents involved one worker losing four fingers after getting her hand caught in a seed grinding machine, and another having the tip of her finger sliced-off in a machine dividing dough.
In the first, the machine had no safety guard because it had broken 18 months earlier.
The woman who lost her four fingers had seven operations on her hand and is still off work. The other victim's fingertip could not be re-attached and treatment is ongoing.
In the second incident, the guillotine was accessible and there was no inspection or maintenance undertaken.
In both cases the victims were inadequately trained, WorkSafe said.
Area investigation manager Danielle Henry said both incidents were entirely avoidable.
"To harm a second worker is nothing short of reprehensible when Bakeworks was already on notice of the harm that deficient machine guarding can cause.
"These victims were vulnerable workers who deserved far better from their employer. It is fundamentally wrong that harm-rates are worse for Māori, Pacific peoples and migrant workers, and New Zealand needs to do better."
Bakeworks Ltd was charged twice under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The maximum penalty was a fine of $1.5 million.
