A worker has died in an incident at Ports of Auckland this week. Photo / NZME
A worker has died in an incident at Ports of Auckland this week. Photo / NZME
The death of a worker at the Ports of Auckland this week reiterated the tough job ahead for new chief executive Roger Gray.
Gray only officially stepped into the role on April 4 but has already felt the full extent of the pressure involved in making the port a safe place to work.
Senior Herald journalist Tom Dillane tells the Front Page podcast that the pressure on him will be huge, given that the death of 26-year-old Atiroa Tuaiti comes off the back of three casualties since 2017.
Ports of Auckland worker Atiroa Tuaiti and his partner had just had a baby in October. Photo / Supplied
Gray was brought into the role as replacement for former Chief executive Tony Gibson, who departed amid enormous criticism over the health and safety track record at the port.
"Tony Gibson was the person everyone seemed to want gone and he was lumped with a lot of the problems at the port," says Dillane.
"And now, the same thing has essentially happened in that you've had this tragic death of worker under new leadership, which suggests you have deep-seated issues.
"Something has to be done. There have already been calls from the Maritime Union for a national inquiry into port safety."
Dillane says that the Union, which was previously highly critical of Gibson, will likely give the new boss the time to implement changes to improve safety conditions at the port.
An independent review released last year outlined the need for significant improvement at Ports of Auckland. It noted systemic problems in health and safety management and organisational management.
In addition to this, the Maritime Union also called for an end to the graveyard shifts that see workers enduring shifts as long as 12 hours.
Dillane says that after the last death, there was a reduction in work hours for port workers and stevedores specifically.
But these changes aren't always easy to implement.
"Even when that happened, there was a lot of blowback on how this was compromising the ability to get cargo through for New Zealand businesses," says Dillane.
"That was two years ago, and now we have the added issue of the supply chain demands that Covid has thrown up at a global level. So, there's a huge tension between unions and the management of the port to keep the workflow up."
The challenge for Gray will be managing the demand of hitting targets while simultaneously ensuring that the safety of the staff is prioritised.
Dillane said that one of the most damning statements in the independent review released last year was that "elements of the workforce who undertake high-risk roles, mainly terminal operations, believe that executive management prioritise profitability and productivity over health and safety, and that this is reinforced at the operational leadership level."
This gets to the crux of the cultural issues, which have long made the Auckland Port such a dangerous place to work for staff.
The question now is whether a new boss will be able to rectify the legacy issues or whether we'll see yet another haka in the future for a fallen worker.
•
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am.
