3 Apr 2019

Heinz Wattie's fined $281k over boiling brine injury

8:27 pm on 3 April 2019

Heinz Wattie's Limited has been fined more than a quarter of a million dollars after a boiling solution severely burned a worker's lower legs.

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The food manufacturer appeared in Hastings District Court today.

In May 2017, a vat used to manufacture brine overflowed into the worker's gumboots.

A WorkSafe investigation found that the vats had boiled over on numerous occasions in the past, but workers were simply told to avoid them.

The head of specialist interventions Simon Humphries said Heinz Wattie's should have known better.

It was fined $281,250 and ordered to pay reparations of $50,000 to the victim.