Maritime Union Stands with Pike River Families and calls for Corporate Manslaughter Laws

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) is giv­ing its full sup­port to the Pike Riv­er fam­i­lies, who are today call­ing on Par­lia­ment to strength­en the Health and Safe­ty at Work Act (HSWA) and urgent­ly intro­duce Cor­po­rate Manslaugh­ter laws into New Zealand leg­is­la­tion.

MUNZ Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay says the cost of health and safe­ty neg­li­gence is mea­sured in the lives of work­ing peo­ple.

Mr Find­lay says MUNZ today marks the 15th anniver­sary of the Pike Riv­er tragedy remem­ber­ing those who paid the ulti­mate price for health and safe­ty fail­ures.

“The Mar­itime Union stands with their fam­i­lies today in say­ing ‘enough is enough.’”

Mr Find­lay says the his­to­ry of the New Zealand water­front, like min­ing and forestry, is marked by avoid­able death and injury.

“Work­ers have been harmed where prof­it has been pri­ori­tised over safe­ty, and this must stop,” Mr. Find­lay says.

The Mar­itime Union strong­ly endors­es the call to bol­ster the exist­ing Health and Safe­ty at Work Act while strength­en­ing it with the addi­tion of a Cor­po­rate Manslaugh­ter pro­vi­sion.

Mr. Find­lay says the pros­e­cu­tion of for­mer Ports of Auck­land CEO Tony Gib­son, which, despite result­ing in a con­vic­tion that is under appeal, high­light­ed a flaw in New Zealand’s health and safe­ty frame­work.

“The case of the pre­vi­ous CEO at Ports of Auck­land shows we need laws that reflect the sever­i­ty of this issue.”

“Stronger laws are the way to pro­tect work­ers. When CEOs and direc­tors face the threat of a cor­po­rate manslaugh­ter con­vic­tion, which car­ries per­son­al con­se­quences beyond a fine for the com­pa­ny, it changes behav­iour.”

To hon­our the Pike Riv­er 29, and work­ers from all indus­tries, we must strength­en health and safe­ty laws, says Mr Find­lay.