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RNZ News
31-07-2025
- RNZ News
Crushed to death, fingers lost: the machines hurting workers
The conveyor belt at a Timaru lumberyard that 23-year-old Ethyn McTier was trapped and killed by in July this year. Photo: Supplied A timber worker is having to relearn how to play the guitar and trumpet - and how to write - after losing two fingers in a machine without a guard. His passion, music, is now bittersweet, he says. A 37-year-old man is dead; seven months into a packing job, asphyxiated after he fell onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. The belt lacked a guard. Graham McKean of the Maritime Union counselled the man's workmates at the factory just days later. "They were distraught," he said. "It was horrific, I just, the feeling in the air, the hair on the back of my neck, the chill that ran down my spine. "Simply because the proper guard had not been put in place." Then there is Ethyn McTier , dead at 23, crushed in an unguarded conveyor belt. Ethyn McTier was crushed by an unguarded conveyor belt. Photo: Supplied These are cases brought to public attention in recent months, where machinery safety failings were only penalised or fixed after the fact. An engineer who gives expert evidence in courts and to inquests after workers are killed or hurt is angry. "Expert witness work mostly makes me angry," Dr Joe Bain said. "Because time after time, after time, we wind up writing reports that highlight that somebody's been seriously injured, if not killed, by a known problem, where there is an existing solution ... that simply hasn't been applied." In eight years giving such testimony, he has yet to come across a tragedy that could not have been averted. It's mostly not malice, he said, but businesses not knowing what "good looks like". But could it be that now a solution to New Zealand's poor and dangerous record with machinery is in sight? The government thinks so. Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has launched a quickfire consultation with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe - to make what "good" looks like clear. "The Health and Safety in Employment 1995 Regulations for machine guarding are out-of-date, incomplete and very prescriptive, requiring very specific protection for woodworking and abrasive grinding machinery," she said in a statement on Thursday. "The review will consult on simplifying these out-of-date rules" and guidance, she said. Make that a "major" rewrite, said the Employers and Manufacturers Association. The EMA joined with ACC last year to come up with a harm reduction plan. "No funding was provided for the implementation of this plan," said ACC, which instead has been seeking companies with good ideas about what to do. ACC, like Worksafe, faces financial strictures limiting or cutting its programmes. That could be financially wrong-footed, when manufacturing injuries are costing ACC $165 million a year and mounting. Business Canterbury's Leeann Watson senses a breakthrough after years of frustration - she and the EMA are among those puzzling over why work on machine safety started then stopped - buoyed by van Velden fronting 100 of her members last year, an unusual move by a minister she believes. "There is no business that I know of that is not wanting to keep their people safe," Watson said. "They just want good clarity and good consistency." Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden is consulting with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Yet the 1995 regulations to be simplified say very little about machine guards; by contrast, the guidance and existing standards amount to over 1000 pages. Yet it leaves out "the useful bit", Bain said. What is that? Simple European standards, complete with pictures, called Type Cs, that show how to keep most of the most commonly used machines safe - "all the work has been done". Bain (who declared to RNZ his involvement with the Labour Party) told van Velden about Type Cs at her roadshow on overall work safety reform in Napier last year. "I've told her. "Anybody who knows me is sick of hearing me talk about Type C standards" - he wrote about them in Safeguard magazine in January - "Pretty much, they nod their heads and go, 'Yeah, that makes sense'. "Whether it's come through as clearly from other contributors to the roadshows, I don't know." As it turns out, not so much. An initial summary of roadshow submissions alluded to it. But a summary out on Wednesday of all the submissions - including written ones covering over a thousand people - left it out. This later summary only mentions machinery and guards once. It is, in fact, seven pages shorter than the 46-page summary that covers only the roadshow. Mike Cosman is nervous at what the minister is saying. "Yesterday it was scaffolding. Today it's guarding and the messaging seems to be the same, which is lowering standards, which means making it cheaper." The consultant, a veteran of previous government workplace safety reviews, helped submit to the roadshow on behalf of a thousand members of the Institute of Safety Management. "The approach that we take is already risk based. It's all based on the concept of doing what's reasonably practicable in the circumstances. "And anything that undermines that fundamental approach, which has been around now for 50 years, I think is dangerous." At the same time, he acknowledged the way the rules should be implemented needed to be clearer. The Maritime Union's Graham McKean voiced similar worries. Bain was clear on the problem and the solution. "Generally speaking, that's not as a result of malice," he said of harm to workers, "it's as a result of businesses not having enough information made available to them. Not having a clear idea of what good looks like." Import Type Cs tomorrow and give them to businesses for free, was his message to the government. There is no sign of that happening. "There are many standards referenced across the health and safety at work regulations; it is not standard practice for government to pay for accessing these," van Velden told RNZ. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
31-07-2025
- RNZ News
Timber worker re-learning how to write, play guitar after losing two fingers in machine
The conveyor belt at a Timaru lumberyard that 23-year-old Ethyn McTier was trapped and killed by in July this year. Photo: Supplied A timber worker is having to relearn how to play the guitar and trumpet - and how to write - after losing two fingers in a machine without a guard. His passion, music, is now bittersweet, he says. A 37-year-old man is dead; seven months into a packing job, asphyxiated after he fell onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. The belt lacked a guard. Graham McKean of the Maritime Union counselled the man's workmates at the factory just days later. "They were distraught," he said. "It was horrific, I just, the feeling in the air, the hair on the back of my neck, the chill that ran down my spine. "Simply because the proper guard had not been put in place." Then there is Ethyn McTier , dead at 23, crushed in an unguarded conveyor belt. Ethyn McTier was crushed by an unguarded conveyor belt. Photo: Supplied These are cases brought to public attention in recent months, where machinery safety failings were only penalised or fixed after the fact. An engineer who gives expert evidence in courts and to inquests after workers are killed or hurt is angry. "Expert witness work mostly makes me angry," Dr Joe Bain said. "Because time after time, after time, we wind up writing reports that highlight that somebody's been seriously injured, if not killed, by a known problem, where there is an existing solution ... that simply hasn't been applied." In eight years giving such testimony, he has yet to come across a tragedy that could not have been averted. It's mostly not malice, he said, but businesses not knowing what "good looks like". But could it be that now a solution to New Zealand's poor and dangerous record with machinery is in sight? The government thinks so. Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has launched a quickfire consultation with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe - to make what "good" looks like clear. "The Health and Safety in Employment 1995 Regulations for machine guarding are out-of-date, incomplete and very prescriptive, requiring very specific protection for woodworking and abrasive grinding machinery," she said in a statement on Thursday. "The review will consult on simplifying these out-of-date rules" and guidance, she said. Make that a "major" rewrite, said the Employers and Manufacturers Association. The EMA joined with ACC last year to come up with a harm reduction plan. "No funding was provided for the implementation of this plan," said ACC, which instead has been seeking companies with good ideas about what to do. ACC, like Worksafe, faces financial strictures limiting or cutting its programmes. That could be financially wrong-footed, when manufacturing injuries are costing ACC $165 million a year and mounting. Business Canterbury's Leeann Watson senses a breakthrough after years of frustration - she and the EMA are among those puzzling over why work on machine safety started then stopped - buoyed by van Velden fronting 100 of her members last year, an unusual move by a minister she believes. "There is no business that I know of that is not wanting to keep their people safe," Watson said. "They just want good clarity and good consistency." Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden is consulting with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Yet the 1995 regulations to be simplified say very little about machine guards; by contrast, the guidance and existing standards amount to over 1000 pages. Yet it leaves out "the useful bit", Bain said. What is that? Simple European standards, complete with pictures, called Type Cs, that show how to keep most of the most commonly used machines safe - "all the work has been done". Bain (who declared to RNZ his involvement with the Labour Party) told van Velden about Type Cs at her roadshow on overall work safety reform in Napier last year. "I've told her. "Anybody who knows me is sick of hearing me talk about Type C standards" - he wrote about them in Safeguard magazine in January - "Pretty much, they nod their heads and go, 'Yeah, that makes sense'. "Whether it's come through as clearly from other contributors to the roadshows, I don't know." As it turns out, not so much. An initial summary of roadshow submissions alluded to it. But a summary out on Wednesday of all the submissions - including written ones covering over a thousand people - left it out. This later summary only mentions machinery and guards once. It is, in fact, seven pages shorter than the 46-page summary that covers only the roadshow. Mike Cosman is nervous at what the minister is saying. "Yesterday it was scaffolding. Today it's guarding and the messaging seems to be the same, which is lowering standards, which means making it cheaper." The consultant, a veteran of previous government workplace safety reviews, helped submit to the roadshow on behalf of a thousand members of the Institute of Safety Management. "The approach that we take is already risk based. It's all based on the concept of doing what's reasonably practicable in the circumstances. "And anything that undermines that fundamental approach, which has been around now for 50 years, I think is dangerous." At the same time, he acknowledged the way the rules should be implemented needed to be clearer. The Maritime Union's Graham McKean voiced similar worries. Bain was clear on the problem and the solution. "Generally speaking, that's not as a result of malice," he said of harm to workers, "it's as a result of businesses not having enough information made available to them. Not having a clear idea of what good looks like." Import Type Cs tomorrow and give them to businesses for free, was his message to the government. There is no sign of that happening. "There are many standards referenced across the health and safety at work regulations; it is not standard practice for government to pay for accessing these," van Velden told RNZ. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
31-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
'Out of date' machinery laws under review
By Phil Pennington of RNZ A timber worker is having to relearn how to play the guitar and trumpet - and how to write - after losing two fingers in a machine without a guard. His passion, music, is now bittersweet, he says. A 37-year-old man is dead; seven months into a packing job, asphyxiated after he fell onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. The belt lacked a guard. Graham McKean of the Maritime Union counselled the man's workmates at the factory just days later. "They were distraught," he said. "It was horrific, I just, the feeling in the air, the hair on the back of my neck, the chill that ran down my spine. "Simply because the proper guard had not been put in place." Then there is Ethyn McTier, dead at 23, crushed in an unguarded conveyor belt. These are cases brought to public attention in recent months, where machinery safety failings were only penalised or fixed after the fact. An engineer who gives expert evidence in courts and to inquests after workers are killed or hurt is angry. "Expert witness work mostly makes me angry," Dr Joe Bain said. "Because time after time, after time, we wind up writing reports that highlight that somebody's been seriously injured, if not killed, by a known problem, where there is an existing solution ... that simply hasn't been applied." In eight years giving such testimony, he has yet to come across a tragedy that could not have been averted. It's mostly not malice, he said, but businesses not knowing what "good looks like". But could it be that now a solution to New Zealand's poor and dangerous record with machinery is in sight? The government thinks so. Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has launched a quickfire consultation with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe - to make what "good" looks like clear. "The Health and Safety in Employment 1995 Regulations for machine guarding are out-of-date, incomplete and very prescriptive, requiring very specific protection for woodworking and abrasive grinding machinery," she said in a statement on Thursday. "The review will consult on simplifying these out-of-date rules" and guidance, she said. Make that a "major" rewrite, said the Employers and Manufacturers Association. The EMA joined with ACC last year to come up with a harm reduction plan. "No funding was provided for the implementation of this plan," said ACC, which instead has been seeking companies with good ideas about what to do. ACC, like Worksafe, faces financial strictures limiting or cutting its programmes. That could be financially wrong-footed, when manufacturing injuries are costing ACC $165 million a year and mounting. Business Canterbury's Leeann Watson senses a breakthrough after years of frustration - she and the EMA are among those puzzling over why work on machine safety started then stopped - buoyed by van Velden fronting 100 of her members last year, an unusual move by a minister she believes. "There is no business that I know of that is not wanting to keep their people safe," Watson said. "They just want good clarity and good consistency." Yet the 1995 regulations to be simplified say very little about machine guards; by contrast, the guidance and existing standards amount to over 1000 pages. Yet it leaves out "the useful bit", Bain said. What is that? Simple European standards, complete with pictures, called Type Cs, that show how to keep most of the most commonly used machines safe - "all the work has been done". Bain (who declared his involvement with the Labour Party) told van Velden about Type Cs at her roadshow on overall work safety reform in Napier last year. "I've told her. "Anybody who knows me is sick of hearing me talk about Type C standards" - he wrote about them in Safeguard magazine in January - "Pretty much, they nod their heads and go, 'Yeah, that makes sense'. "Whether it's come through as clearly from other contributors to the roadshows, I don't know." As it turns out, not so much. An initial summary of roadshow submissions alluded to it. But a summary out on Wednesday of all the submissions - including written ones covering over a thousand people - left it out. This later summary only mentions machinery and guards once. It is, in fact, seven pages shorter than the 46-page summary that covers only the roadshow. Mike Cosman is nervous at what the minister is saying. "Yesterday it was scaffolding. Today it's guarding and the messaging seems to be the same, which is lowering standards, which means making it cheaper." The consultant, a veteran of previous government workplace safety reviews, helped submit to the roadshow on behalf of a thousand members of the Institute of Safety Management. "The approach that we take is already risk based. It's all based on the concept of doing what's reasonably practicable in the circumstances. "And anything that undermines that fundamental approach, which has been around now for 50 years, I think is dangerous." At the same time, he acknowledged the way the rules should be implemented needed to be clearer. The Maritime Union's Graham McKean voiced similar worries. Bain was clear on the problem and the solution. "Generally speaking, that's not as a result of malice," he said of harm to workers, "it's as a result of businesses not having enough information made available to them. Not having a clear idea of what good looks like." Import Type Cs tomorrow and give them to businesses for free, was his message to the government. There is no sign of that happening. "There are many standards referenced across the health and safety at work regulations; it is not standard practice for government to pay for accessing these," van Velden said.
RNZ News
31-07-2025
- RNZ News
Timber worker learning how to write, play guitar after losing two fingers in machine
The conveyor belt at a Timaru lumberyard that 23-year-old Ethyn McTier was trapped and killed by in July this year. Photo: Supplied A timber worker is having to relearn how to play the guitar and trumpet - and how to write - after losing two fingers in a machine without a guard. His passion, music, is now bittersweet, he says. A 37-year-old man is dead; seven months into a packing job, asphyxiated after he fell onto a fast-moving conveyor belt. The belt lacked a guard. Graham McKean of the Maritime Union counselled the man's workmates at the factory just days later. "They were distraught," he said. "It was horrific, I just, the feeling in the air, the hair on the back of my neck, the chill that ran down my spine. "Simply because the proper guard had not been put in place." Then there is Ethyn McTier , dead at 23, crushed in an unguarded conveyor belt. Ethyn McTier was crushed by an unguarded conveyor belt. Photo: Supplied These are cases brought to public attention in recent months, where machinery safety failings were only penalised or fixed after the fact. An engineer who gives expert evidence in courts and to inquests after workers are killed or hurt is angry. "Expert witness work mostly makes me angry," Dr Joe Bain said. "Because time after time, after time, we wind up writing reports that highlight that somebody's been seriously injured, if not killed, by a known problem, where there is an existing solution ... that simply hasn't been applied." In eight years giving such testimony, he has yet to come across a tragedy that could not have been averted. It's mostly not malice, he said, but businesses not knowing what "good looks like". But could it be that now a solution to New Zealand's poor and dangerous record with machinery is in sight? The government thinks so. Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has launched a quickfire consultation with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe - to make what "good" looks like clear. "The Health and Safety in Employment 1995 Regulations for machine guarding are out-of-date, incomplete and very prescriptive, requiring very specific protection for woodworking and abrasive grinding machinery," she said in a statement on Thursday. "The review will consult on simplifying these out-of-date rules" and guidance, she said. Make that a "major" rewrite, said the Employers and Manufacturers Association. The EMA joined with ACC last year to come up with a harm reduction plan. "No funding was provided for the implementation of this plan," said ACC, which instead has been seeking companies with good ideas about what to do. ACC, like Worksafe, faces financial strictures limiting or cutting its programmes. That could be financially wrong-footed, when manufacturing injuries are costing ACC $165 million a year and mounting. Business Canterbury's Leeann Watson senses a breakthrough after years of frustration - she and the EMA are among those puzzling over why work on machine safety started then stopped - buoyed by van Velden fronting 100 of her members last year, an unusual move by a minister she believes. "There is no business that I know of that is not wanting to keep their people safe," Watson said. "They just want good clarity and good consistency." Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden is consulting with factories aiming to simplify rules around keeping machines safe. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Yet the 1995 regulations to be simplified say very little about machine guards; by contrast, the guidance and existing standards amount to over 1000 pages. Yet it leaves out "the useful bit", Bain said. What is that? Simple European standards, complete with pictures, called Type Cs, that show how to keep most of the most commonly used machines safe - "all the work has been done". Bain (who declared to RNZ his involvement with the Labour Party) told van Velden about Type Cs at her roadshow on overall work safety reform in Napier last year. "I've told her. "Anybody who knows me is sick of hearing me talk about Type C standards" - he wrote about them in Safeguard magazine in January - "Pretty much, they nod their heads and go, 'Yeah, that makes sense'. "Whether it's come through as clearly from other contributors to the roadshows, I don't know." As it turns out, not so much. An initial summary of roadshow submissions alluded to it. But a summary out on Wednesday of all the submissions - including written ones covering over a thousand people - left it out. This later summary only mentions machinery and guards once. It is, in fact, seven pages shorter than the 46-page summary that covers only the roadshow. Mike Cosman is nervous at what the minister is saying. "Yesterday it was scaffolding. Today it's guarding and the messaging seems to be the same, which is lowering standards, which means making it cheaper." The consultant, a veteran of previous government workplace safety reviews, helped submit to the roadshow on behalf of a thousand members of the Institute of Safety Management. "The approach that we take is already risk based. It's all based on the concept of doing what's reasonably practicable in the circumstances. "And anything that undermines that fundamental approach, which has been around now for 50 years, I think is dangerous." At the same time, he acknowledged the way the rules should be implemented needed to be clearer. The Maritime Union's Graham McKean voiced similar worries. Bain was clear on the problem and the solution. "Generally speaking, that's not as a result of malice," he said of harm to workers, "it's as a result of businesses not having enough information made available to them. Not having a clear idea of what good looks like." Import Type Cs tomorrow and give them to businesses for free, was his message to the government. There is no sign of that happening. "There are many standards referenced across the health and safety at work regulations; it is not standard practice for government to pay for accessing these," van Velden told RNZ. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Maritime Union says Aratere ferry should not retire, despite breakdown
Some Thursday morning sailings of the Aratere ferry were cancelled. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The Maritime Union says the government should not retire the Aratere despite its recent breakdown, as a three-ship fleet is needed for a resilient Cook Strait connection. A propulsion fault meant the ferry had to wait at anchor for hours in Queen Charlotte Sound overnight while a specialist electrician came to fix the problem. The breakdown comes while the Kaiārahi is out of action due to scheduled wet dock maintenance, including emergency repairs, and ahead of the Kaitaki being out of service for a routine safety inspection. Maritime Union of New Zealand national secretary Carl Findlay said the incident was concerning and could have been "catastrophic" if it happened in the Cook Strait, potentially leading to "another huge maritime disaster". He said the crew, who were currently facing the loss of their jobs due to the Aratere's impending retirement, deserved thanks for upholding high standards of professionalism and keeping passengers safe and sound while the ferry was delayed for hours in the Marlborough Sounds. "It must be really playing on their minds, but they carry on with their work day in, day out in a professional manner and they deserve some applause for that." Findlay said problems with the vessels, which were all at the end of life, were well documented and the union didn't want to see the Aratere retired in August as it left only two vessels responsible for maintaining the inter-island link. The union had flagged the dangers of removing a key vessel from service, and the current situation showed that KiwiRail needed to rethink their plan. The union wanted to see the government reverse its decision, spend more money on maintenance and retain the 71 members currently facing the loss of their jobs, until the new ships arrived in 2029. "They're ageing as we all know, it just shows again the absolutely silly call that Nicola Willis made 18 months ago when she collapsed the iREX project." "We'd have a new ferry coming around the corner if [the government] hadn't cancelled that project and cost the tax payer hundreds of millions of dollars." He said the first of those new purpose-built ferries was due to arrive in this year, but were now another four years away, and passengers were likely to face years of disruption. The union wanted to see the government reverse its decision, spend more money on maintenance and retain the 71 members currently facing the loss of their jobs, until the new ships arrived in 2029. Findlay said the entire Interislander fleet was currently hampered by breakdowns, damage, or being taken out of service for audit. Last weekend, Kaiārahi had its bow door damaged in rough seas, which will be welded shut to allow it to continue to operate until a scheduled dry dock in Singapore in July. The Kaitaki would soon be out of action while it underwent a Maritime NZ audit, before it headed to dry dock in Singapore. A KiwiRail spokesperson said it has had to cancel the 4pm Aratere sailing, as it continues to explore what caused the electrical issue that led to the ferry breaking down overnight. It comes after the 6.15am sailing from Wellington and the return 11.00am sailing from Picton were cancelled. KiwiRail is undertaking further testing to identify what caused the problem. Private passengers booked on the 4pm sailing are being shifted to the Kaitaki sailing at 8.45am on Friday, while all freight customers have been moved onto a Kaiārahi sailing which is expected to depart later today. On 7 June, Kaiārahi's bow door sustained some damage when the vessel encountered two large waves off Sinclair Head in Cook Strait. Kaiārahi had departed two hours early from Picton, at 5.30am, to get ahead of the forecast large swells. It was a freight only sailing and the swells were well within the vessel's operating limits, with the wave rider showing a 4.4 metre swell. It has been in scheduled maintenance wet dock since then, with repair work done on the bow door. The spokesperson said the work had almost been completed and the vessel would resume sailing, before it left for dry dock in Singapore on 27 June. It is due back on 18 August. Meanwhile, the Kaitaki will be out of action this weekend while it undergoes its annual Passenger Ship Safety Certificate inspection this weekend. A Maritime NZ spokesperson said they were speaking to KiwiRail after the Aratere's breakdown, to determine if further action needed to be taken. It is seeking more information around what occurred, the actions undertaken to remedy the issue, and assurances that appropriate measures are in place to prevent recurrence. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
