{"id":133344,"date":"2025-11-13T18:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/133344\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T18:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:21:11","slug":"rotorua-worker-seriously-injured-at-claymark-sawmill-worksafe-investigating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/133344\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua worker seriously injured at Claymark sawmill, WorkSafe investigating"},"content":{"rendered":"

WorkSafe\u2019s investigation into the 2023 incident<\/a> found the machine was unguarded and there was an ineffective system for maintenance. Training and supervision of workers also \u201cfell short\u201d.<\/p>\n

This year, WorkSafe accepted an enforceable undertaking from Claymark \u2013 a legally binding voluntary agreement that can be an alternative to prosecution.<\/p>\n

Claymark committed to safety measures worth $481,000, using AI technology to indicate risks to workers\u2019 health and safety in real time, and upskilling workers on health and safety.<\/p>\n

\"WorkSafeWorkSafe is investigating how a worker became “seriously injured” while cleaning at Claymark\u2019s Rotorua sawmill. Photo \/ Ben Fraser<\/p>\n

Workers First Union organiser Phil Graham said it was \u201cextremely worrying\u201d to hear of another accident at a business \u201calready under the microscope\u201d for health and safety, and committed to an enforceable undertaking via WorkSafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSerious workplace accidents like this require transparency, a duty of care and a willingness to admit to and remedy any health and safety breaches that have occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt simply cannot happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham said wood manufacturing could be a dangerous industry with significant risks to workers\u2019 wellbeing and it was vital companies were committed to protecting workers and following proper health and safety procedures on-site.<\/p>\n

In his view, given Claymark\u2019s previous enforceable undertaking, \u201cfurther accidents like this could necessitate prosecution, which is WorkSafe\u2019s duty as our national safety agency\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Claymark was fined almost $600,000 <\/a>for health and safety failings after two workers sustained serious injuries while operating machinery on two separate occasions.<\/p>\n

One worker lost the tips of his middle, index and little fingers at the company\u2019s Vaughan Rd site in March 2017.<\/a><\/p>\n

In December 2016, a worker\u2019s hand had to be amputated after it was drawn into a wood planer at the business\u2019 Kopu plant in Thames.<\/p>\n

Megan Wilson<\/a> is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WorkSafe\u2019s investigation into the 2023 incident found the machine was unguarded and there was an ineffective system for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1975,138,91439,91440,52132,10933,17709,111,139,69,1327,2218,23419,14578,6123,12767,17705],"class_list":{"0":"post-133344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-at","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-claymark","11":"tag-claymarks","12":"tag-cleaning","13":"tag-injured","14":"tag-investigating","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-rotorua","19":"tag-sawmill","20":"tag-seriously","21":"tag-tuesday","22":"tag-while","23":"tag-worker","24":"tag-worksafe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}