OSH said the company failed to identify the hazards involved in doing this work and did not have proper safety procedures in place to prevent this accident happening.
Another company, Abrasive Blast Cleaning Ltd was also prosecuted last year in relation to this accident. They pleaded guilty to four charges and were sentenced to pay $27,500.
If your company does not have a hazard identification plan or proper safety procedures in place, OSH can issue improvement of prohibition notices until the identified hazard is mitigated.
The Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002 comes into force on May 5 2003.
For a breach of section 7(1) of the Act, fine levels range from $800 to $4000 (section 7(1) of the Act sets out the requirement to have a system in place to identify and manage workplace hazards to prevent harm to employees).
For other offences, where a person's action, or failure to act occurs, and they know it is likely to cause serious harm, the maximum fine will be increased from $100,000 to $500,000 and the maximum term of imprisonment increased from 1 year to 2 years. It should be noted that this section is very seldom used.
There is also a fine that only applies for failure to comply with Section 16(3), a duty to warn authorised visitors of work-related, out-of-the ordinary hazards. In this case the fine cannot exceed $10,000.
In general, for most offences, the maximum fine will be increased from $50,000 to $250,000.
While the Act states the financial circumstances of an offender must be taken into account in setting a fine, lack of attention to hazards and safety in your business could still cause major hardship to you, your employees, and your business.
The cost of preparing and managing a hazard identification plan in line with the amendments to the Act could far outweigh the cost of ‘going with the flow’.
For other Health and Safety in Employment articles, here
Link to the Health and Safety (Workinfo) website [click here]
Mary-Jane Thomas is Preston Russell's employment law partner. You can contact her by clicking here.
