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A former Auckland pier says he narrowly avoided the same fate as a father of seven who was crushed to death under a container on Sunday.
Saul Parks is one of two former Ports of Auckland workers who spoke after the man’s death on a container ship around 2 a.m., the third death involving the port in three years.
Meanwhile, a current employee says the port management told staff to continue working at the container terminal near where the man died, while his crushed body remained on the ship.
A Ports of Auckland spokesperson said that at no time were staff ordered to continue working after the incident or expected to continue against their wishes.
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But he did apologize for something that was told to staff the morning after the incident, which one worker said included a comparison to how police continued to work after the recent death of a police officer.
The company “absolutely” rejected the other health and safety accusations made by former workers to Stuff.
Parks said she shared her story with Stuff to push for greater security at the port, which he says is a major ongoing issue.
In 2019, he was employed as a flogger, the same role as the man who died on Sunday, working the 12-hour shifts expected of Ports of Auckland longshoremen.
Parks said he was working on a platform next to a ship at the Fergusson Container Terminal helping to unload containers alongside a crane.
The cranes at the port have brakes to slow the descent of the containers as they approach the ground.
But that day the brakes on a crane were not working, he said.
He said he began to notice cases where containers were descending rapidly as they approached the platform.
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Then an inattentive crane driver crashed two 20-foot containers onto the platform at high speed, causing them to separate on the ground and nearly collide with him, he claimed.
“Since they separated, I had to run towards the hutch, which is a small safe at the end of the platform.
“If I hadn’t, they would have ripped my head off.”
Parks said he was later told to be careful because the crane’s brakes weren’t working and to stay in the cab.
BEVAN READ / Stuff
A container terminal in the ports of Auckland.
He claimed that he was never asked about the incident and no health and safety report was submitted.
Another former worker at the port, who was riding side straddle among other jobs, claimed his career advancement came to a halt when he raised a safety issue.
Matt, who did not want his last name used, said he was given a large amount of work on a night shift, which was due to end at 11 p.m.
By the end of his shift, he had only completed three-quarters of his assigned duties.
When he spoke to a manager, they gave him a radio to communicate with and told him to go out alone and finish the job, he said.
However, the workers had to always be accompanied by another person for safety reasons, he added.
After raising the incident as a health and safety issue, Matt said his career progression stopped.
“When I mentioned it, everything stopped for me.
“It’s not a healthy culture, it’s about productivity.”
A current port worker, who asked to remain anonymous but whose identity Stuff has verified, claimed that staff who arrived at the terminal near the place where the man on the ship died were instructed to continue working, just five hours after the incident.
The jetty said it felt this was the “supreme disrespect” to the family of its deceased colleague from continuing to work while the crushed body still lay on the boat.
“For me it is Tapu. It’s sacred and just bad luck. “
RNZ
The Health Ministry has ordered that everyone working in the ports of Auckland and Tauranga be tested for Covid-19.
He said management compared the situation to the one that police continued to work with after the death of Officer Matthew Hunt in West Auckland earlier in the year.
The workers met and decided not to continue working so soon after death, he said.
Ports of Auckland communications and public relations general manager Matt Ball said staff were not ordered to continue working after the incident, nor expected to work, if they did not wish to.
“However, we accept that some of what was initially told to staff that morning, while well-intentioned, was not well-written and we apologize for that.”
Counselors who had been brought to the scene offered support to staff, and most of the port workers did not want to work and went home, Ball said.
After the accident, work on the ship stopped immediately, he said. No further work was done on the ship, apart from the tasks necessary to allow it to navigate safely.
Ball said the company rejected the allegations by the former employees.
“We have reviewed the safety claims you have submitted and absolutely reject them.”
When asked what changes would be made in the wake of Sunday’s incident, Ball said the investigation was ongoing and the cause was not yet fully understood.
“If as a result of the investigation it is clear that changes are needed in the way we operate, they will be made.”
Maritime NZ and the police are conducting a joint investigation into the death.
Police have yet to release the man’s name, but Stuff understands that he was the father of seven children.
The death came less than two weeks after Auckland ports admitted a health and safety charge in Auckland District Court following the death of 23-year-old Laboom Midnight Dyer two years earlier.
Dyer was driving a portico carriage on Fergusson Wharf when he bowed. He was seriously injured and died in hospital five days later.
In July, Ports of Auckland and one of its captains were fined for failing to meet their health and safety obligations after a pilot boat accidentally collided and killed ocean swimmer Leslie Gelberger.
