Wes and his dog Em. Photo: Supplied
The sister of a man killed at work by slipping on to a conveyor belt says she has had assurances the minister is taking action.
Wesley Tomich died in 2023 at a fertiliser plant in Mt Maunganui.
The woman who has name suppression asked for and got a meeting with Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden recently.
"We did speak to her about the levels of fine and reparation and how it didn't align especially in this particular circumstance and that the judge's hands were tied," Tomich's sister said.
"And so she told us that she would bring that up" during the workplace safety law reforms.
Tomich's sister said van Velden told her the focus would be on critical life-threatening risks and not on box-ticking, and on high-risk sectors such as forestry, construction and manufacturing, and there would be more focus on telling companies their obligations and prosecuting them even if that was before things went wrong.
"I would like to see all the things that we spoke about at the meeting with Brooke implemented and see what sort of difference this would make," the sister said.
"Because I do believe we have a lot more to do in that space but we have to start somewhere."
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