Maritime Union welcomes conviction of ex Port of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has wel­comed the con­vic­tion of for­mer Ports of Auck­land CEO Tony Gib­son on a health and safe­ty charge.

Mr Gib­son was found guilty by Judge Bon­nar in the Auck­land Dis­trict Court this morn­ing.

Charges were laid against Mr Gib­son by indus­try reg­u­la­tor Mar­itime New Zealand under the Health and Safe­ty at Work Act (2015) fol­low­ing the death of POAL employ­ee Mr Pala’amo (Amo) Kalati on 30 August 2020.

The Court found Mr Gib­son failed to ensure ade­quate sys­tems were in place to man­age crit­i­cal risks, par­tic­u­lar­ly around crane oper­a­tions and exclu­sion zones.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay says the con­vic­tion brings to an end “an era of fail­ure at the high­est lev­els of Port of Auck­land which had trag­ic out­comes for work­ers, their fam­i­lies and their col­leagues.”

Mr Find­lay says the Mar­itime Union made repeat­ed attempts to draw atten­tion to health and safe­ty con­cerns at POAL dur­ing Mr Gibson’s tenure, which were min­i­mized and down­played.

“This con­vic­tion vin­di­cates the stance of our Union but it sad­ly comes too late for those who died due to the fail­ure to ensure a safe work­place.”

He says thoughts today should go out to the fam­i­lies and those left behind after deaths on the water­front.

“Today’s out­come sends a mes­sage that work­ers lives mean some­thing, and that high­ly paid deci­sion mak­ers are account­able for their deci­sions.” 

“We hope oth­er senior man­agers and Board mem­bers reflect and gain insight into the effect on inno­cent work­ing peo­ple when health and safe­ty is not pri­or­i­tized.”

He says new man­age­ment at the Ports of Auck­land have tak­en a pos­i­tive approach to engag­ing with work­ers and the Union, and this has result­ed in health and safe­ty and the well­be­ing of work­ers at the Port becom­ing a pri­or­i­ty.

“Fol­low­ing the igno­min­ious res­ig­na­tion and depar­ture of Mr Gib­son in 2021, the Mar­itime Union has worked togeth­er suc­cess­ful­ly with new man­age­ment at POAL and steve­dor­ing com­pa­nies in Auck­land to devel­op a code of prac­tice to ensure best safe­ty prac­tices in steve­dor­ing.”

The Mar­itime Union would con­tin­ue to cam­paign for cor­po­rate manslaugh­ter laws that reflect­ed its view – “Kill a work­er, go to jail.”

This is the first time a chief exec­u­tive from a com­pa­ny of POAL’s size had been charged under the Health and Safe­ty at Work Act 2015.