A worker has died in an incident at Ports of Auckland this morning. Video / Dean Purcell
A haka by distraught shipping workers rang out at the Ports of Auckland (POAL) as the body of a 26-year-old new father was transported from the scene of a fatal accident.
Otara resident Atiroa Tuaiti died at the port after a "fall from height" shortly after 9am yesterday while working for stevedore contracting company Wallace Investments.
It is the fourth death involving port workers since 2017.
Auckland mayor Phil Goff described Tuaiti's death as a tragedy, just 12 months after delivering an independent review into POAL that found systemic problems with health and safety at the council-owned business.
Then port chief executive Tony Gibson resigned a month later in May 2021, after intense media scrutiny and union pressure for him to vacate the role.
Tuaiti grew up on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, but moved to South Auckland during his teens and attended Mt Roskill Grammar. It is understood he has worked at the port for several years.
Ports of Auckland worker Atiroa Tuaiti and his partner had just had a baby in October. Photo / Supplied
The 26-year-old welcomed his first son in October last year, and relatives have told the Herald of their grief for his utterly "heartbroken" partner Kura.
"He [Tuaiti] was a really good loving son, brother, cousin, uncle to many family out there - not forgetting a father to his handsome son and to his beautiful partner," one relative told the Herald.
A Wallace Investments spokesperson confirmed they would investigate the death, and pledged to "fully cooperate" with Maritime NZ's investigation.
"The company and staff are devastated and our immediate thoughts are with family and friends of the deceased," Wallace Investments general manager Felix van Aalst said.
Ports of Auckland workers perform a haka in honor of their fallen colleague Atiroa Tuaiti who died in an accident. Photo / Supplied
Footage from the scene of the accident was posted online by one of Tuaiti's colleagues showing several dozen visibly upset workers congregating around Tuaiti's body.
A haka was performed among the ship containers beneath drizzly rain while a distressed colleague laid his hand on the covered body as Tuaiti was about to be loaded into a van for transportation.
Maritime Union of New Zealand national secretary Craig Harrison called for a national inquiry into port safety.
The union understood Tuaiti had fallen while working on the container ship Capitaine Tasman, which is flying a Singaporean flag.
Atiroa Tuaiti died at the Ports of Auckland on Tuesday in a fall. Photo / Supplied
"If you look at our industry and you look around the country, you see there's been multiple deaths and serious harm the last few years," Harrison said.
"And it's not a big industry. It's not like the size of construction or anywhere near it. Yet we feature highly in serious harm and death. I think it's an opportune time to look at our industry and see if it's fit for purpose."
Harrison said the wet conditions yesterday morning at the port were nothing out of the usual for stevedores, and he could not speculate on the direct cause of the accident.
"It rains through the winter and they work seven days a week up to winds of about 40 knots. So it might contribute to it, but it's not unusual to work in this sort of weather," he said.
"It's hard to really put the button on if there was a 'harness culture' or anything like that. I know it's a dangerous environment and people are working at heights. So if there's been a misjudgement or something like that I'm not too sure."
Port workers pay their respects as Atiroa Tuaiti's body is prepared for transport after an accident at the Ports of Auckland on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied
However, Harrison defended the role of POAL in yesterday's death - clarifying that Wallace Investments were stevedores working within the port facilities, but not POAL staff.
"There was nothing really in the POAL direct control that could have influenced this at all," Harrison said.
Former union leader Shane Te Pou put his name to a letter calling for Gibson's resignation in April last year, which was also signed by Auckland Council Independent Māori Statutory Board member Tau Henare, and Auckland councillor Efeso Collins.
Te Pou said yesterday's death came amid an ongoing "deregulation" of the labour market.
"There's been a weakening of health and safety terms and conditions across work sites in New Zealand. [They're] high risk ports and wharves and I think the union is quite right. We need to have a nationwide audit, a nationwide review. One death is one death too many."
Te Pou said new POAL chief executive Roger Gray had been trying to foster a closer relationship with workers since being announced in the role in December. Gray has however only been in the job officially for a couple of weeks after taking on the CEO title on April 4.
The port worker was killed after falling from height at Ports of Auckland on Tuesday. Photo / Dean Purcell
"The new CEO has, as I understand it, become very engaged with the staff, so he will be devastated. They [staff] will be devastated. But I think the relationship is better than the last CEO," Te Pou said.
Tuaiti's death adds to a string of tragedies and serious injuries at POAL in recent years.
In August 2020, father-of-seven Palaamo Kalati, 31, a stevedore, was crushed to death by a container on a ship at the Fergusson Container Terminal.
In 2018, 23-year-old Laboom Midnight Dyer died after a straddle carrier he was driving tipped over.
In July, 2020, POAL was fined $242,000 for failing to comply with health and safety duties after a pilot boat accidentally struck and killed ocean swimmer Leslie Gelberger in 2017.
Gelberger's widow Laura McLeod welcomed the POAL safety review when it was released in March last year.
"The fact that there have been two further deaths since the death of my husband, which itself was a product of a culture that prioritises productivity over welfare, is heartbreaking," McLeod said then.
"How many deaths does it take to have them concretely change their ways and, as recommended, prioritise safety over profits?"
