Roofing company to pay further $42k

A roofing company which was originally fined $18,000 over serious injury caused to a worker who fell off the roof of a two-story house has been ordered to pay a further $42,000 by the High Court at Auckland.

The Department of Labour appealed the company's original fine and additional $40,000 in reparation, saying it was ''manifestly inadequate''.

Eziform Roofing Products does roofing work on residential and non-residential buildings. It was prosecuted under the Health and Safety in Employment Act for failing to ensure the safety of an employee after a worker lost his footing and fell about 5.5 metres onto the concrete below from the roof of a Takapuna house.

The injured man and another worker had struck difficulties while trying to install a replacement rooftop guttering which proved to be too big.

As a result of his fall, the worker suffered multiple breaks to his right leg and left foot, fractured his right knee, and suffered two shattered vertebrae and spinal cord damage.

He was hospitalised for several months, has permanent injuries, has not returned to work and is unlikely to be able to ever work as a roofer again.In September 2012 a District Court judge found the company guilty on two health and safety charges which carried a maximum penalty each of $250,000.

The safety processes and training Eziform had initiated on larger commercial sites were not transferred to smaller routine maintenance jobs, she found.

The company was ordered to pay $40,000 reparation due to the extent and severity of the man's injuries and an $18,000 fine. The judge had reduced the fine by just over 50 per cent because she was concerned a heavy fine might jeopardise the company's ongoing viability.

But Justice Ailsa Duffy in a High Court judgement out today said excessive weight had been placed on concerns about the company's financial viability, especially given it had insurance in place that would cover the reparation.

''Not enough weight was placed on the need to ensure workplace safety through the deterrence and denunciation that follows the imposition of a stiff financial penalty,'' she said.

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Roofing company to pay further $42k