Multiple employers fined after employee suffers life threatening injuries…
June 10, 2024
The District Court has fined multiple employers after their health and safety failures lead to an employee suffering life threatening injuries.
The injury occurred during a construction project which was operated by a lead contractor. Two sub-contractors were also involved in the project.
The victim, an employee of one of the sub-contractors, was undertaking instructions given to him. While undertaking the instructions heavy machinery gave out and the employee was pinned beneath it. The crush resulted in multiple life-threatening injuries and the employee was hospitalised for two weeks.
The Court found that:
The lead contractor and first sub-contractor had a duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their employees.
The second sub-contractor had a duty to, so far as reasonably practicable, consult, co-operate, and co-ordinate activities on-site with the other contractors.
Each company failed to take steps in relation to planning, communicating, executing and overseeing the health and safety systems on the worksite. The Court noted that these failings exposed the employees to a risk of serious injury or death.
The employers failed to ensure that the hazards and risks associated with the work were identified and assessed, they failed to provide and implement safe systems of work, and failed to ensure work operations were safe and effective. The contractors also failed to consult, co-operate with each other, and co-ordinate their work activities.
The second sub-contractor failed to supervise, monitor, and train their workers effectively for their work activities. The health and safety processes were also undocumented.
The Court described these failings as a, “…significant blind spot in their health and safety systems”, which lead to a “readily foreseeable” consequence. Effective safety measures could have been put in place at a cost-effective price to the employers.
The Court fined the lead contractor $400,000 and ordered the employer to contribute to $45,000 in reparations to the victim. The first sub-contractor was fined $10,000, and the second sub-contractor was ordered to contribute to the $45,000 in reparations to the victim.
It is vital to ensure that you are meeting your health and safety obligations, especially when there are multiple parties involved. If you are confused about your obligations, it pays to seek early advice from a professional with experience in the area.
Source: Rainey Collins Health & Safety Issues - May 2024
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Over 50,000 Kiwi businesses are now set up for eInvoicing. What is eInvoicing? eInvoicing allows you to send and receive invoices electronically, directly to and from Xero, for faster payments, improved accuracy, and less manual data entry. Invoices arrive securely via Peppol, a global public network that has been endorsed by the New Zealand Government for electronic invoicing processing. STEP 1: Get registered To register email admin@stuarts.co.nz your business’s New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) and the details of the contact person you will nominate for your business. We will then complete your registration. Once registered, your business name, NZBN, country of registration and a unique participant ID will be publicly available through the Peppol directory. STEP 2: Get ready to send Before you start eInvoicing, your customer records need to include the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) of the businesses you’ll be billing. Updating these details takes a little bit of setup now, for easier, safer invoicing ‘ever after’. It should only take a minute or two per customer, and there’s no need to update all your customer records at once – you can work through them one by one as it suits you. If you don’t have their NZBN, you can ask the customer, search on the NZBN directory, or use the free Business Match service on the NZBN website. If an organisation uses more than one NZBN across its business, select the one most relevant to you. In Xero: Contacts > Select Customer > Contact Details > Edit Contact > NZBN You'll also need to make sure your NZBN is in your organisation details: Account > Settings > Organisation Details > NZBN And if you're registered for GST, make sure your GST number is included in your financial settings: Account > Settings > Organisation Details > Advanced Settings > Financial Settings > GST Number And now you are ready to notify your customers! Because the more customers you send to, and receive from, the more benefit you’ll get. Smoother processing. Less errors and delays, allowing for faster payment. And, improved e-security. So encourage your buyers to eInvoice you - and give them the details they need. You can email your customers - but also update your email signatures, cost estimates, or other assets your customers frequently see. STEP 3: Receiving & Sending Once you’re registered for eInvoicing - you’re all ready to receive. Incoming eInvoices will appear as ‘Draft Bills’ in Xero - not via email - so if you don’t already check your draft bills regularly, it might be worth setting a reminder to do so. To send an eInvoice, just create an invoice as normal. Once you have entered the relevant contact, the option to ‘Send as an eInvoice’ will activate in the bottom right corner of the invoice screen. Once you select this option, complete the details of your invoice as normal. If your customer requires a purchase order, contract number, project number or tender number as part of an invoice, make sure this information is entered in the ‘Reference’ field.
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