Meat processing company Richmond has been convicted on occupational safety charges from two meatworks accidents, one fatal.
The Department of Labour brought the charges of failing to ensure employee safety against Richmond, which pleaded guilty in Dannevirke District Court, after the accidents at its Oringi operation near Dannevirke.
Worker Kirihora Chase was
fatally injured on February 25 when a mutton cloth around her neck became caught in a conveyor belt.
The second incident involved Paula Turner, who had her hand crushed in a conveyor belt roller on March 3.
The court was told Ms Chase was cleaning a room with a conveyor belt passing through it with a cleaning cloth draped around her neck.
She was found under the conveyor belt with the cloth around her neck tightly entangled in its chain drive.
The court was told the chain-drive mechanism had worn through the guard covering it.
Ms Turner was hurt while cleaning one of a group of conveyor belts in a new boning room. She had switched off and isolated one conveyor belt and was working on cleaning it when another worker pushed a button that activated it.
The company will be sentenced at Dannevirke on August 26.
