Scott Technology, the Dunedin-listed robotics and automation maker that builds production lines for some of the world’s largest appliance and meat processing companies, has been formally charged by WorkSafe over the death of a worker at its Kaikorai Valley Road factory last April.
WorkSafe confirmed on Friday that its investigation is complete and that it has filed a charge against the NZX-listed company under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. The regulator alleges Scott failed to ensure the health and safety of workers and exposed them to a risk of death or serious injury, as reported by RNZ. The maximum penalty on conviction is a fine of 1.5 million dollars.
The worker who died was 32 year old Michael Sherry, a programmable logic controller technician who joined Scott in September 2023. According to the Otago Daily Times, Sherry was originally from Mackay in Queensland and had moved to Dunedin with his young family. He left behind a wife and two young children, then aged three years and five months. A fundraising page set up after his death has since raised more than 40,000 dollars for his family.
The fatal incident happened on Thursday 24 April 2025 at around 3.45pm. Sherry was carrying out pre-commissioning work on what is known internally as the 365 Seafield machine, a variable independent path shoulder puller of the kind used on lamb processing lines. Police investigated on behalf of the coroner at the time and WorkSafe opened the parallel safety investigation that has now produced the charge.
In a statement filed with the NZX, Scott Technology said it had been informed by WorkSafe of its intention to commence proceedings in relation to the tragic workplace accident, that the company was fully co-operating with the regulator, and that it remained committed to the safety and wellbeing of its people.
The charge arrives at a strong commercial moment for the company. Scott Technology designs and builds automated production lines for appliance makers and protein processors, with Dunedin serving as its engineering and assembly hub. The Kaikorai Valley Road site where the accident happened houses the meat processing automation division. In October last year the company announced 44 million dollars of new contracts with United States and Brazilian appliance manufacturers, and earlier in 2025 it set out a Destination 2030 strategy targeting 530 million dollars in annual revenue by the end of the decade.
Sharemarket reaction has been muted. Scott Technology shares were trading at 2.44 dollars on Sunday morning, down four cents or 1.6 percent on Friday’s close, valuing the company at about 205 million dollars. Over the past 12 months the stock has gained more than 35 percent, reflecting a strong order book rather than any change in the regulatory backdrop.
For Scott’s customers and rivals, the case is also a reminder that the commissioning of new automated machinery is one of the highest risk activities in modern manufacturing. Pre-commissioning is the phase in which a new line is wired up, calibrated and tested before it goes into full production, and it requires technicians to work in close proximity to moving parts that are normally enclosed and interlocked once the line is live. Industry safety guidance has long treated commissioning, maintenance and the clearing of jams as the moments when machine guarding can most easily be defeated.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 places a duty on companies to take all reasonably practicable steps to eliminate or minimise risk to workers. A finding against Scott would not require WorkSafe to prove that any individual failed in their duties, only that the system the company had in place was inadequate to protect Sherry on the day. While the 1.5 million dollar maximum sits at the top of the available range, actual fines handed down in fatality cases since the law took effect have typically been substantially lower once courts have applied credit for guilty pleas, full co-operation and reparations paid to the bereaved family.
A first court appearance has not yet been scheduled. Scott Technology said it would not comment further while the matter is before the courts, as also reported by 1News.
The Sherry case has also drawn attention from beyond Otago because Scott is one of the country’s flagship engineering exporters, sitting alongside Fisher and Paykel, Tait Communications and Gallagher in the small group of New Zealand manufacturers competing genuinely on the world stage. A WorkSafe prosecution against a company with that profile rarely passes unnoticed inside the sector.
For Sherry’s family, none of that is the point. The death notice in the Otago Daily Times described him as the irreplaceable love of our lives and a true lover of music and a friend to all who met him. Just over a year on from the accident, his two children are now aged four and one.
What do you think of the way New Zealand prosecutes workplace fatalities, and is the 1.5 million dollar maximum fine still enough of a deterrent for companies of Scott Technology’s size? Leave a comment below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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