Editorial: Victim deserves proper apology

The law is clear when it comes to workplace safety, and there is a string of employers who have ended up in court over the years for failing to ensure their staff were safe.

One example is Realcold Milmech, fined $44,000 and ordered to pay $9000 reparation in September 2010 after a worker's leg was broken in machinery it supplied to Affco's Rangiuru meatworks.

And in April last year, Katikati's Pearce Tool & Manufacturing was fined $60,000 after an employee lost a finger.

Last year, 41 workers were killed at work in New Zealand and thousands of others were injured. So far this year, seven people have died, including one in the Bay.

But the latest case to feature in this newspaper, on Tuesday this week, surprised me for two reasons. The first was the victim's forgiving nature. The second was the heartless response of his former boss.

Tauranga teenager Aaron Wilton-Jones was left blind in his left eye after an accident on his second day of work.

Aaron and his boss Kerry Bruce Duggan, trading as Mr Alifix, were on a third storey of scaffolding, removing window panes from Tauranga Boys' College gym on May 9 last year.

Mr Duggan taught Aaron to remove rubber seals using a screwdriver but gave him a chisel for the task when they were working at the gym.

But as Aaron tried to remove the seals, he slipped and the chisel hit his eye.

Mr Duggan was fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $15,000 in reparation to Aaron, after pleading guilty in Tauranga District Court last week to one offence under the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

I was heartened to read Aaron was willing to forgive Mr Duggan. He even wanted to meet him for a coffee.

Forgiveness runs in his family. The Wilton-Joneses forgave a driver who fell asleep and killed Aaron's grandmother, Diane Wilton-Jones, 68, in the Bay in 2010.

Many people would be bitter if they were seriously hurt on the job and unwilling to forgive. Instead, Aaron has demonstrated humanity.

I can't say the same for Mr Duggan, who Aaron says has not been in touch with him since before the operation where his damaged eye was removed.

Mr Duggan believed officials were wrong to prosecute him and he would have denied the charge if he could have afforded to. Aaron, he said, must have done "something stupid that no one saw to get that tool in his eye".

These comments, made after the court case, are appalling and portray Mr Duggan as someone who is unfeeling and couldn't care less. He should meet Aaron and apologise face to face.