Maritime Union welcomes charges against Ports of Auckland following 2020 death

The Mar­itime Union has wel­comed the announce­ment of charges against Ports of Auck­land (POAL) fol­low­ing the 2020 death of a work­er at the Ports.

Mr Pala’amo (Amo) Kalati was killed on 30 August 2020 after being crushed when a con­tain­er was dropped dur­ing a lift­ing oper­a­tion on the night shift.

31-year old Mr Kalati was a father of sev­en and had only been work­ing at the Ports for a short time.

The charges under the Health and Safe­ty at Work Act 2015 have been filed by Gov­ern­ment agency Mar­itime New Zealand at the Auck­land Dis­trict Court and a court date has not been set.

Both the Ports of Auck­land and an indi­vid­ual have been charged but the iden­ti­ty of the indi­vid­ual is not yet known.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says the charges fol­low an inde­pen­dent health and safe­ty review at the Ports of Auck­land com­mis­sioned by the own­ers of the port, Auck­land City.

That review found sys­temic prob­lems around the health and safe­ty man­age­ment cul­ture at the Ports.

Mr Har­ri­son says the case will be a test for the Ports of Auck­land and had major impli­ca­tions for all New Zealand work­ers.

“This can nev­er hap­pen again.”

The for­mer chair of the POAL Board Liz Coutts and the for­mer CEO of POAL Tony Gib­son have both resigned since the 2020 death of Mr Kalati.

On Fri­day 4 Decem­ber 2020, POAL was sen­tenced for their role in the death of anoth­er young employ­ee in 2018 and fined over half a mil­lion dol­lars.