Auckland ports case: Maritime Union calls for managers and chairmen of boards to be held accountable for deaths

The New Zealand Maritime Union is calling for individual managers and board chairs to be held accountable for workplace fatalities.

Ports of Auckland was today fined $ 540,000 and ordered to pay a $ 136,000 repair to the family of Laboom Dyer, who died in a work accident in 2018.

The union’s national secretary, Craig Harrison, said senior managers and board chairs who oversee and create unsafe work environments must be held accountable.

The corporate fines were simply a business cost, he said after today’s ruling in Auckland District Court.

Judge Evangelos Thomas said the port’s violation was a “systemic failure.”

Ports of Auckland attorney John Billington QC said: “The port accepts full responsibility for this tragedy.”

But Harrison said Auckland taxpayers are paying for administrative failures.

“Until managers who have a duty to care for their workforce are prosecuted for recklessness under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, we will continue to see a culture of profit before safety.”

Dyer was working a night shift on August 27, 2018 when the cargo vehicle he was driving tipped over.

The 23-year-old was seriously injured and died a week later.

The court heard today that Ports of Auckland, which pleaded guilty to one charge under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 2015, had a bonus plan to reward crossover drivers for their high productivity.

Harrison said the union had opposed the bonus system, which contributed to the culture at Ports of Auckland.

He said the union also raised concerns about the driving culture, which included ignoring warning signs and using cell phones, which management was aware of prior to Dyer’s death.

Harrison said the port administration was aware of how the straddle carriers were operating because the vehicles automatically reported security incidents.

It was only after Dyer was assassinated that management took steps to change the culture, he added.

Dyer’s death is one of only three Ports of Auckland workplace deaths in as many years.

In September, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff announced an independent health and safety review in ports, owned by Auckland City Council.

Palaamo Kalati, a dock worker and father of seven, died in the port in August.

Harrison said the government should expand the investigation nationwide and look at how productivity pressures and fatigue were killing workers.

In November, Ports of Auckland announced that it was also conducting an organizational review, including an investigation into the accident that killed Kalati.