Concerns with health and safety approach at Lyttelton Port Company

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and says it has con­cerns about the approach of the Lyt­telton Port Com­pany (LPC) to man­dat­ory fit­ness tests.

The con­cerns come after the sen­ten­cing of LPC in July 2024, fol­low­ing the death of MUNZ mem­ber Don Grant while load­ing coal on the ETG Aquar­i­us in April 2022.

LPC pleaded guilty in Novem­ber 2023 to one charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 brought by industry reg­u­lat­or Mari­time NZ.

Mari­time Uni­on Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Carl Find­lay says work­ers have wel­comed the guilty plea and sen­ten­cing, but have con­cerns about the cur­rent approach of LPC to listen­ing to its work­ers.

Mr Find­lay says a lot has changed since the tra­gic death of Mr Grant, a friend and much loved col­league at Lyt­telton.

“This is not only in work prac­tices involving coal oper­a­tions, but in Man­age­ment and Gov­ernance and the rela­tion­ships between LPC and Uni­ons.”

Mr Find­lay says LPC has many new mem­bers on the Board and a new Chair Barry Bragg.

LPC also have their third CEO in a short time in Gra­ham Sum­ner, fol­low­ing the resig­na­tion of former CEO Kirstie Garden­er and inter­im CEO Jim Quinn.

Mr Find­lay says LPC have now announced a new man­dat­ory fit­ness for work pro­gram for all employ­ees.

He says this has been pushed through without regard to work­ers con­cerns over their fin­an­cial pro­tec­tion and well­being of any mem­bers who fail the assess­ment, with the ulti­mate res­ult of people los­ing employ­ment if they don’t meet the stand­ard. 

“In short, MUNZ see this as a breach of good faith and LPC not hon­our­ing our Col­lect­ive Employ­ment Agree­ment.”

Mr Find­lay says the Uni­on is agree­able to fit­ness for work health mon­it­or­ing, but want LPC to nego­ti­ate in good faith.

He says LPC are impos­ing a fit­ness for work test and the con­sulta­tion pro­cess was not work­ing.

“MUNZ is very con­cerned how the death of a work­er has been used to imple­ment new policies without bring­ing along work­ers and listen­ing to their voices.” 

Mr Find­lay says work­force mor­ale is sink­ing with a lack of com­mit­ment shown towards LPC by some Coun­cil lead­ers, and the ongo­ing churn of man­age­ment and Board mem­bers.

“Former LPC CEOs Roger Gray and Kirstie Garden­er took part in open engage­ment with the uni­ons, and LPC con­tain­er ter­min­al was the 35th best per­form­ing ter­min­al out of the top 415 ter­min­als in the world.”

“Unfor­tu­nately, with ongo­ing changes at the top and a less open approach by Man­age­ment,  LPC con­tain­er ter­min­al has now dropped to 385 in the list of the top 415 ter­min­als in the world.”

MUNZ and LPC are attend­ing medi­ation on 16 August on the issue of health mon­it­or­ing.

“We are con­fid­ent we can find a way for­ward with not only LPC, but also CCHL who man­age LPC on behalf of Christ­ch­urch City Coun­cil.”

MUNZ is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing the safety and well­being of not only our mem­bers, but all work­ers in the port of Lyt­telton, says Mr Find­lay.