Make CEOs with blood on their hands pay

Former POAL boss fined $190k in legal first after workplace death

Former Port of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson has been fined $130,000 and ordered to pay Maritime NZ $60,000 in relation to the workplace death of a stevedore.

He was earlier found guilty of failing to comply with health and safety regulations, putting port workers at risk of death or serious injury, in a landmark conviction.

Father-of-seven Pala’amo Kalati, 31, was working a night shift in August 2020 when a container fell on top of him and killed him.

At Gibson’s sentencing on Friday afternoon, Judge Steve Bonnar told the court that the former port boss was generally a “hands-on CEO in relation to health and safety issues at the port”. But he said, in this instance, Gibson “failed to exercise the care, diligence and skill” required of a reasonable officer.

In his judgement last year, Judge Bonnar concluded that Gibson was “ultimately responsible for health and safety” and was required to exercise systems leadership.

Good! Make those CEO’s with blood on their hands pay!

In 2023, there were 54 fatal work-related injuries in New Zealand, from June 2022 to May 2023, there were 34,887 injuries that resulted in more than a week away from work and we have one of the worst rates of worker deaths and injuries in the OECD…

Workplace accidents and deaths are costing the country collectively $4.4 billion, according to a new report out on Tuesday looking at the state of health and safety prevention in New Zealand.

In the past five years there were about 73 deaths at work each year, meanwhile ACC received 193,000 new work-related injury claims last year.

Those fatality statistics are on par with the number of workplace tragedies that were recorded in Britain in the 1980s. That country’s numbers have reduced greatly in the past 20 years.

Business Leaders’ Health & Safety Forum’s State of a Thriving Nation report outlines that New Zealand’s workplace fatality rate is twice that of Australia.

…the deunionistion of NZ has led to repressed wages and dangerous work conditions, if charging greedy CEOs for the deaths of their workers forces those greedy CEOs to give a fuck, so be it.

 

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