UPDATED: 6.22PM Meat processor Affco has been ordered to pay $55,000 over an incident that left a worker hanging on a meat hook for an hour.

The company was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court today, having earlier been found guilty of breaching health and safety laws.

Judge Peter Rollo ordered the company to pay a fine of $30,000 and to further pay Jason Matahiki reparation of $25,000.

Darien Fenton told Larry Williams she's glad he and his family were compensated, but it's not anywhere near enough to deter this kind of behaviour from the company.

"I saw the Affco chairperson today saying, 'this worker should have just not done the job.' The truth is, in that company, if he'd not done the job, if he'd refused to work, he would have been sacked."

Ms Fenton said he's talked quite openly about what this has meant for him - and the ongoing psychological problems he's faced since the accident.

"He's lost his confidence. He tried to commit suicide early on because he though he was useless to his family. It's taking a lot of work not only getting back to work doing his job but also he's seemed to have a lot of support."

In August 2014, Mr Matahiki, known as Whopper to his workmates, was cleaning the mutton line at Affco’s works south of Te Puke when he was struck by the hook.

Mr Matahiki was caught between a disused frame for a scanner — which should have been removed — and another part of the the mutton chain when caught in the back of the head by the foot-long hook.

It forced its way through his skull, coming out beneath his eye, before pulling him further along the chain.

Mr Matahiki earlier told the Herald he had no recollection of the accident but was told by a firefighter friend who got him down that he had hung on the hook for an hour.

Colleagues had supported his body as he hung there, waiting for the hook to be disconnected.

Earlier in court, Affco highlighted Mr Matahiki was in an area he wasn’t meant to be.

The court found he was standing on a tray which was out of bounds to staff, but likely used it to check the quality of cleaning on the moving hooks.

However, in November the court found the case was not one of employee causation, but of company failure to comply with its statutory obligations under the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

At the time, Judge Rollo noted the incident could have been avoided had proper procedures been followed.

WorkSafe's chief inspector Keith Stewart agrees and said: "They should also have ensured that the lockout processes are strictly adhered to so the mutton chain wasn't operational."

Mr Stewart said the court's agreed that Affco was in breach of Health and Safety laws.

"One of the important things this accident reinforces is that even if you have some systems and processes in place, you need to be constantly vigilant around the management of risk."