Law stories
A company’s ignored maintenance warnings ended in a fatal three-metre fall and a GBP £279,000 fine for unsafe trailer edge protection.
A court has ordered VINZ to pay more than GBP £500,000 after a customer was struck by a vehicle at its Hamilton testing site and later died.
Eight workers suffered chemical burns after poor oversight of Mycoplasma bovis clean-up left sodium hydroxide seeping into gloves.
WorkSafe said repeated tip alarm warnings went unheeded before a straddle carrier overturned, killing a stevedore in 2018.
Many external HR and safety consultants now need a Private Investigator licence to conduct workplace probes, or risk breaching the Act.
A Dunedin court has fined a plumbing firm and its director after a bathroom heater installation caused a 12-year-old boy’s carbon monoxide death.
A Manawatu dairy farmer has been ordered to pay a fine after repeatedly blocking inspectors, despite WorkSafe's warning that cooperation is mandatory.
Six people were left with serious burns after a Christchurch home was destroyed by an explosion caused by a gasfitter’s safety lapse.
The Auckland firm was fined USD $220,000 after a worker’s leg was amputated when unguarded machinery trapped him in a steel beam drill.
Lax hazard checks before manual tree felling led to a worker’s death, with Sullivan Contractors fined and ordered to pay GBP £365,225 in reparations.
A worker suffered severe arm injuries after a tyre shredder was used without guarding, prompting a GBP £450,000 penalty and reparation.
WorkSafe said workers were exposed to dangerous fibres after friable asbestos was stripped from a Queenstown property without a licence or safety plan.
Three workers were shocked at an Auckland site after unsafe testing and faulty wiring, prompting close to NZD $100,000 in fines.
Public safety was put at risk when poorly planned excavation brought down a power pole in Wellington, prompting fines for two men.
A New Plymouth court has ordered more than USD $250,000 in penalties and reparation after a young worker lost three fingers in unguarded machinery.
A Christchurch meat plant has been fined and ordered to pay reparation after a worker lost four fingers in a cleaning accident.
A Rotorua logging firm’s failure to assess live powerlines left a worker with life-changing burns and triggered the penalty.
A near-miss after the Kaikōura earthquake exposed switch-isolation failures, prompting over GBP £200,000 in safety initiatives for the electricity sector.
Six workers must be repaid after unlawful salary cuts at a hospice trust prompted a warning on consultation rules and minimum wage limits.
MBIE has warned employers that rushed cutbacks can trigger personal grievance claims and costly penalties if proper redundancy process is ignored.
