Port Sector Plan For Improving Safety On Our Ports

The Port Health and Safety Lead­er­ship Group – made up of uni­ons, ports and steve­doring com­pan­ies, the Port Industry Asso­ci­ation, Mari­time NZ and Work­Safe – is proud to release its advice to the Min­is­ter of Trans­port, a multi-year Port Sec­tor Insights Pic­ture and Action Plan to make ports safer.

This fol­lows the tra­gic deaths of two port work­ers in 2022, after which the Min­is­ter of Trans­port asked the Port Health and Safety Lead­er­ship Group for advice to address health and safety on ports.

The plan pulls togeth­er inform­a­tion from fatal­it­ies, injur­ies, incid­ents, near-misses, reg­u­lat­ory noti­fic­a­tions, invest­ig­a­tions and assess­ments, work­er sur­veys, and work­er inter­views and work­shops to build a pic­ture of what drives ser­i­ous harm on ports — who it is hap­pen­ing to, and why. It lays out six key inter­ven­tions where changes can have a real impact:

- Imple­ment­ing the Fatigue Risk Man­age­ment Sys­tem: Good Prac­tice Guidelines to reduce the risks asso­ci­ated with work­er fatigue.

- Put­ting in place an Approved Code of Prac­tice around load­ing and unload­ing of cargo to imple­ment more con­sist­ent reg­u­lat­ory stand­ards in rela­tion to some of the highest risk activ­it­ies in Ports.

- Recom­mend­ing the Gov­ern­ment extend the Mari­time NZ des­ig­na­tion to cov­er the whole port.

- Work to improve incid­ent report­ing, noti­fic­a­tions, insights and learn­ing across the Ports, so the sec­tor can get bet­ter real time under­stand­ing of harm and take neces­sary action.

- Action to improve train­ing and work­force issues.

- Actions to ensure there are easi­er ways of shar­ing good prac­tice that the sec­tor is doing here, or over­seas, to encour­age con­tinu­ous improve­ment on Ports.

“We owe it to those work­ing on ports every day, the people who have died, their fam­il­ies, and those who have been injured, to improve safety on ports,” says Port Health and Safety Lead­er­ship Group Chair and Mari­time NZ Chief Exec­ut­ive Kirstie Hew­lett.

“We have built a com­pre­hens­ive pic­ture of why and where harm is hap­pen­ing on ports. All port and steve­doring com­pan­ies, reg­u­lat­ors, and many work­ers, have con­trib­uted sig­ni­fic­ant data, insights and time to devel­op this pic­ture, which is the found­a­tion for our multi-year harm pre­ven­tion pro­gramme. This is already provid­ing valu­able insights to sec­tor par­ti­cipants on where to tar­get their effort.”

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary, Craig Har­ris­on, says the plan is a cru­cial step in improv­ing safety on ports.

“While research shows that over time ser­i­ous injur­ies on ports have declined, there is still more work to do. Hear­ing work­ers’ voices and includ­ing work­ers’ exper­i­ences has been vital.

“This mahi has required trust, part­ner­ship and a dif­fer­ent way of work­ing. It shows what can be accom­plished when the sec­tor works togeth­er towards a com­mon goal. This will make a real dif­fer­ence to the lives of our people.”

Ports of Auck­land Chief Exec­ut­ive, Roger Gray, says the sec­tor is mak­ing a firm com­mit­ment to its work­ers and their fam­il­ies.

“Every­one has the right to go home safe to their wh?nau.”

“The lead­er­ship group has already star­ted imple­ment­ing the action plan. We have pub­lished fatigue risk man­age­ment guidelines, star­ted train­ing and want all organ­isa­tions employ­ing work­ers on ports to have at least star­ted a fatigue risk-man­age­ment sys­tem by Septem­ber.

“Work on an approved code of prac­tice for steve­doring is well under­way, and there is a lot more to come.”

The group has presen­ted the plan to the Min­is­ter for Work­place Rela­tions and Safety, and Trans­port, Michael Wood, who has endorsed it.

For more inform­a­tion and for a copy of the plan, vis­it the Mari­time NZ web­site.