The meat hook went in behind Jason Matahiki's left ear and came out beside his left eye in the 2014 accident at the Affco works.

Meat company Affco has been convicted following a workplace accident where a meat hook became lodged in a cleaner's head.

Jason Matahiki, the injured man, said in a victim impact statement that the accident robbed him of his confidence and left him suffering from nightmares and depression.

Affco has been ordered to pay reparation of $25,000 and a $30,000 fine, for the accident at its Rangiuru plant, near Te Puke, on August 19, 2014.

Experienced cleaner Matahiki​, then 42, was suspended from a meat hook which went through behind his left ear and came out beside his left eye.

READ MORE: *Impaled worker pulled meat hook out himself

Emergency services worked for about an hour-and-a-half to get the hook out. Eventually Matahiki pulled it out himself.

Affco was sentenced at the Tauranga District Court on Wednesday.

And while Matahiki's supporters were pleased about the reparation they were disappointed with the size of the fine, NZ Meat Workers Union director of organising Darien Fenton said.

"I think the fine's pretty much on the light side given the enormity of the injury to Jason," she said.

"It's a horrific story, a horrific injury. That worker's been to hell and back."

Matahiki has been eased back into work and is now back doing six-hour days, five days a week, the court heard.

But he lost an estimated $11,000 in just over a year, while receiving ACC support instead of his previous wage.

At a defended hearing last year, Affco was found guilty of a breach of health and safety for failing to take all practical steps to make sure Matahiki wasn't at risk from the moving foreleg chain.

"Mr Matahiki was carried, suspended on the hook, for a very short distance before his screams alerted a workmate to hit the emergency stop button for the chain," Judge Peter Rollo said in his judgement finding the company guilty.

Matahiki spent about an hour and a half with the meat hook in his head, first supported by workmates, then as firefighters worked to unbolt the hook from the chain.

He eventually pulled the hook out himself.

Before the accident Matahiki described himself as confident and easy-going but he now suffered nightmares and was reluctant to leave home, Rollo told the court on Wednesday.

The psychological trauma had caused ongoing mental health issues.

The defence had submitted that it was "not a predictable accident but a truly freak accident" but Rollo said the accident - and court case - would not have happened if the company had regular monitoring to make sure its procedures were being followed.

In the written judgment where he found Affco guilty, Rollo accepted the company took health and safety seriously but found "critical company failures" in relation to Matahiki's accident.

Three factors came together to cause the accident, the judgment said.

Firstly, Matahiki was standing on drip tray which meant his head was at hook height.

"If Mr Matahiki were standing on the concrete floor immediately under the foreleg chain, any passing hook might 'part his hair' but could not enter the side of his head," the judgment said.

The hook did come into contact with his head, and a nearby scanner frame stopped his head moving forward, causing the hook to push in.

"Without any one of these factors being present, this serious incident almost certainly would not have happened," it said.

Affco had systems in place including annual inductions, regular meetings and external audits but hadn't done enough in Matahiki's case.

The moving chain was a "reasonably identifiable hazard" and company procedure was to keep it stationary during cleaning.

Ongoing monitoring would have picked up the fact that the cleaning team was running the chains, despite receiving training on lock-out procedures.

To the company's credit, policies seemed to have changed "positively and promptly" after the accident.

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