A recent sentencing in the District Court comes after the death of a tractor driver in the North Island back in October 2016. At the time the worker died, he had just clocked a nearly 17 hour day harvesting on farm. At 2.45am on his way home he crashed the tractor and did not survive. In the fortnight leading up to the accident the worker had done nearly 200 hours.
British academics Professor Allyson Pollock and Graham Kirkwood have come out and requested that tackling and other forms of “harmful contact” be banned from school rugby. World renowned neuropathologist Dr Bennet Omalu also recently called for parents to stop their children from playing contact sports until they are at least 18, or risk them suffering permanent brain damage.
When Dr Omalu came on New Zealand TV and started talking about the damage head knocks can have on children’s brains, my wife immediately paid attention. Master A is 6 months old and is our first born. “He’s not playing rugby”, said my wife. “What if he wants to play rugby”, I replied? “He’s still not”, she shot back.
In September 2013 Mr R a long standing employee of milling Company W, lubricated a piece of machinery while it was still running. Unfortunately his hand got caught and his fingers were badly injured.
WorkSafe has issued a warning to farmers to refrain from attempting to harvest woodlots on farms themselves. Whilst it can be tempting to save a few dollars by cutting down your own trees, the reality is most farmers are not trained in commercial woodlot harvesting.
Many farms all over the country have small woodlots that are coming up to harvestable age. Most of these woodlots are planted on steep terrain and require experienced forestry professionals to safely harvest the trees. Unfortunately, there have been incidences of farmers attempting to manually fell woodlots with chainsaws themselves. This is a recipe for disaster.
A very recent decision by the Chief Judge of the Employment Court has been very useful at setting out the rules surrounding who is and who is not a volunteer for the purposes of assessing rights and obligations around minimum employment entitlements.
The case, which revolved around a camping ground in the Tauranga region, examined the status of a person who provided services to the owners of the camping ground in return for a very small cash payment and a waiver of camping fees.