Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Two Bay of Plenty businesses fined for non-compliance

My Barber on Hinemoa St. Photo / Ben Fraser

Two Bay of Plenty businesses have been fined thousands of dollars for being "non-compliant" with Covid-19 requirements.

A Mount Maunganui tattoo shop and a Rotorua barbershop joined four other businesses in the country to receive fines.

The Covid-19 Protection Framework was introduced in December, and WorkSafe New Zealand said it engaged with more than 1000 businesses to achieve compliance over eight weeks.

WorkSafe head of general inspectorate Simon Humphries said about 95 per cent had made changes to be compliant.

Hammerhead Tattoos Limited was fined $12,000 for not checking everyone who entered had a vaccine pass, $4000 for not displaying a sign to show if it was operating with or without vaccine passes, $4000 for not having a QR code placed prominently and $4000 for not having an alternative contact record system.

This was a total of $24,000.

Attempts were made to contact the business.

Rotorua's My Barber was fined a total of $16,000 for similar reasons: it had no system for checking each person there had a vaccine pass and did not display a sign explaining if it was operating with vaccine-passes or not either in a prominent place or by the main entrance.

Hammerhead Tattoos Limited in Mount Maunganui. Photo / Emma Houpt

Owner Ants Haines declined to comment.

Nationally, the fines totalled about $160,000.

Christchurch's Lotus-Heart restaurant was issued infringement notices twice and was fined a total of $44,000.

Humphries thanked businesses that followed the rules.

"The number who aren't following the rules is a very small minority when you consider how many businesses there are across New Zealand in general, and how many have some form of requirements around My Vaccine Pass."

It used an 'educate first' approach when a concern was raised about a business, he said. It provided information about any needed changes to be compliant.

A few had not made the necessary changes, however, and he said people were interested in how it approached "what appeared to be deliberate non-compliance from some businesses".

"WorkSafe is taking a considered approach to decisions on enforcement action to support the public health response to Covid-19 and ensure the health and safety of New Zealanders.

"While we understand it may be frustrating for people who are doing to right thing to see a business open and not following the rules, we need to work carefully and deliberately through our processes to ensure non-compliant businesses are held to account."

A business has 28 days to pay the infringement fees but can request a hearing within that time if they want to raise a matter related to the circumstances of the alleged offence, deny liability or admit liability and have the court consider submissions to the penalty or otherwise.