Zion Wildlife Park Companies Convicted for Death of Handler
Zion Wildlife Park Companies Convicted for Death of Animal Handler
Zion Wildlife Gardens Limited, has been ordered to pay reparations of $60,000 to the partner of the zoo keeper mauled to death by a tiger on 27 May 2009.
Zion Wildlife Services Limited was contracted by Zion Wildlife Garden to employ the staff and was not fined or ordered to pay reparations because it has no assets, no employees and has not been in business for a year.
“When Mr Mncube was fatally attacked the two un-trained adult tigers in the enclosure were not isolated and it is simply unacceptable that a handler was permitted to enter an enclosure in those circumstances,” says Rod Gibbon, Whangarei Service Manager for the Department of Labour.
“This prosecution should serve as a serious warning to employers that irrespective of what the work place is, they have a responsibility to ensure a safe working environment for their employees,” says Mr Gibbon.
ENDS
Notes to Editor
•
Zion Wildlife Services Limited pleaded guilty to one charge
under Section 6 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act
1992 which states that every employer shall take all
practicable steps to ensure the safety of employees while at
work; and in particular shall take all practicable steps
to—
o (a) provide and maintain for employees a
safe working environment; and
o (b) provide and
maintain for employees while they are at work facilities for
their safety and health; and
o (c) ensure that
plant used by any employee at work is so arranged, designed,
made, and maintained that it is safe for the employee to
use; and
o (d) ensure that while at work employees
are not exposed to hazards arising out of the arrangement,
disposal, manipulation, organisation, processing, storage,
transport, working, or use of things—
(i)
in their place of work; or
(ii) near their
place of work and under the employer's control; and
(e) develop procedures for dealing with emergencies that may
arise while employees are at work.
• Zion
Wildlife Gardens Limited pleaded guilty to one charge under
Section 16(1)(b)(iv) of the Health and Safety in Employment
Act 1992 which states:
(1) A person who controls a place
of work (other than a home occupied by the person) must take
all practicable steps to ensure that no hazard that is or
arises in the place harms—
o (a) people in the
vicinity of the place (including people in the vicinity of
the place solely for the purpose of recreation or
leisure):
o (b) people who are lawfully at work in
the place—
(i) as employees of the person;
or
(ii) as contractors engaged by the person;
or
(iii) as subcontractors to a contractor
engaged by the person; or
(iv) as employees
of a contractor or subcontractor to whom subparagraph (ii)
or subparagraph (iii) applies.
(2) A person who controls
a place of work (other than a home occupied by the person)
must take all practicable steps to ensure that no hazard
that is or arises in the place harms people—
o
(a) who are in the place with the express or implied consent
of the person; and
o (b) who—
(i)
have paid the person (directly or indirectly) to be there or
to undertake an activity there; or
(ii) are
there to undertake activities that include buying or
inspecting goods from whose sale the person derives or would
derive (directly or indirectly) any gain or reward.
(3) A
person who—
o (a) controls a place of work
(other than a home occupied by the person); and
o
(b) knows of any significant hazard that—
(i) is in, or is likely to arise in, the place of work;
and
(ii) arises from work that is being
carried on, or has been carried on, for gain or reward in
the place of work; and
(iii) would not, in
the ordinary course of events, be reasonably expected to be
in, or to be likely to arise in, a place of work of that
type; and
o (c) either—
(i)
expressly authorises any other person to be in the place of
work; or
(ii) has personally received oral
advice that any other person will, under the authority of
any enactment, be working in the place of work; and
o
(d) is not obliged, in relation to that other person, to
comply with subsection (1) or subsection (2)—
must take
all practicable steps to warn that other person of the
significant hazard.
(4) Except in the case of the
practicable steps required by this section to be taken in
relation to any person described in subsection (2) or
subsection (3)(c)(i), this section does not impose on any
person who controls a place of work any duty in respect of
any person who is in the place of work solely for the
purpose of recreation or leisure.
(5) The warning
required to be given to a person to whom subsection
(3)(c)(i) applies—
o (a) must be given to that
person at the time at which the express authority to be in
the place of work is given to that person; but
o
(b) if the express authority is given in respect of a group
of persons or a body of persons, whether corporate or
unincorporate, it is sufficient if the warning is given at
that time to a representative or member of that group or
body of persons.
(6) The oral advice required by
subsection (3)(c)(ii) must be given by the person who will
be working in the place of work or by that person's
employer.
Section 16: substituted, on 18 March 1998, by
section 2 of the Health and Safety in
Employment Amendment Act 1998 (1998 No 3).
•
The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 is available
online: http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1992/0096/latest/DLM278829.html