A union representing workers at the Port of Lyttleton say it’s positive that the company is moving fast to fix safety concerns following the serious injury to a forklift driver, but a better commitment to health and safety should have seen the accident avoided in the first place.
Port of Lyttelton was issued five WorkSafe New Zealand improvement notices in January, relating to its city depot near Woolston.
It follows a serious injury to a forklift driver at the depot. The Port also suffered the deaths of a watersider in December, and of a truck driver in November at the port.
Rail and Maritime Transport Union general secretary Wayne Butson says that the company has moved fast to effect the changes required by the improvement notices.
“It’s a pity, however, that it took the serious injury of one of our members to get this sorted – all of the issues identified by Worksafe had been identified by members and raised in health and safety committee meetings in the weeks, and in some cases, months leading up to this incident,” Butson says.
Port chief executive Peter Davie told Radio New Zealand this week that the January incident was not a case of poorly stacked containers, but that the forklift had tripped the containers and triggered the fall.
He says the ground has been levelled in the year, and containers restocked.
Butson says those comments are indicative of a ‘blame the worker’ approach at LPC.
