4 Jul 2018

Bottling company rejects claims of worker safety issues at plant

10:08 pm on 4 July 2018

Christchurch City Council is investigating a water bottling plant in Belfast over claims of worker safety issues.

water bottling

Photo: 123 RF

Cloud Ocean Water, owned by the Ling Hai Group, has permission to draw millions of litres of water from bores north of Christchurch.

Christchurch City Council said a complaint against Cloud Ocean Water over worker safety had also been received today.

"We can confirm that we received a complaint earlier today and are currently investigating," head of regulatory compliance Tracey Weston said.

"However, as this is a live enforcement matter we cannot comment further at this time."

A contractor who visited the site over the past few days, who asked not to be named, said the safety valves on some boilers were not piped properly, and he was worried about the risk they posed to workers.

The contractor said he raised this issue with the site manager.

A spokesperson from Cloud Ocean Water said this even a Christchurch City Council inspector visited the site this morning.

"We fully cooperated with the visit and the inspector found no evidence to support the claims made in the complaint.

"Cloud Ocean Water is committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of its staff, and fully complies with all regulation in this area."

Health and safety concerns at the site since September 2017

A WorkSafe spokesperson said it had been aware of health and safety concerns at the Cloud Ocean Water site since September 2017.

"WorkSafe understands that an external health and safety consultant has been engaged by the company to bring the site up to an acceptable standard for operation," the spokesperson said.

WorkSafe said it had not been officially notified about any new concerns since December 2017.

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