A final combined report on two fatal accidents at the Port of Auckland and Lyttelton Port has highlighted major safety issues in New Zealand’s stevedoring sector.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) report says the findings require “immediate attention” from the industry.
In the first accident, on April 19, 2022, at the Port of Auckland, a stevedore working on a container vessel moved under a suspended 40-foot container and suffered crush injuries when the container was lowered onto them. In the second, on April 25 at Lyttelton Port, a stevedore involved in loading of coal onto a bulk carrier was discovered, deceased, buried under coal on the deck of the vessel.
Chief investigator of accidents, Naveen Kozhuppakalam, says the report identifies broad safety issues for the whole stevedoring sector in three areas – regulatory activity, cohesion in the stevedoring sector, and individual employers’ management of safety.
“The commission wants regulators Maritime NZ and WorkSafe to do more to promote future safety across the sector. They need to take a ‘just culture’ approach, provide insight, promote information sharing and maturity in risk management, and encourage continuous learning,” Kozhuppakalam says.
“If regulators can do that, then it’s more likely that stevedoring will be able to make progress towards operating more like businesses in other high-risk industries, where training, qualifications, and adherence to standards are part of business-as-usual.”
The commission is recommending that Maritime NZ work with the stevedoring industry to develop and implement a risk management code of practice, minimum training standards, and ongoing improvements such as sharing of safety information amongst industry players.
“We need to move on from stevedoring organisations deciding for themselves how they will meet safety requirements. They receive insufficient regulatory oversight, lack industry-wide safety standards, and lack the formal safety management oversight and monitoring required of other industries. There is minimal proactive gathering and sharing of safety information, and too few appreciate the benefits of a good safety culture,” Kozhuppakalam says.
In Auckland, the stevedore’s employer was independent stevedoring company Wallace Investments Ltd, and in Lyttelton the employer was the Lyttelton Port Company Ltd.
“While both stevedoring operations were working to improve their safety systems, each was weak in risk identification and mitigation, communication, and supervisory oversight. And while both companies relied on administrative risk controls, like rules and guidelines, to manage workplace risks, neither company knew how well workers were applying those rules,” Kozhuppakalam adds.
“Employers can rely too much on administrative risk controls. They may seem attractive but it’s a struggle to make them work. People become desensitised to risk, they take shortcuts or drift away from following rules, some of which are thought to be impracticable. Administrative risk controls only work with ongoing active safety leadership, good supervision, and a culture of safe working behaviour.”
The commission made one recommendation to Wallace Investments and two to Lyttelton Port Company.
The Maritime Union of New Zealand has welcomed the report and its findings.
Union welcomes findings
Union national secretary Craig Harrison says the the report is “hard hitting” and comes out of the “tragic, unnecessary and untimely deaths of two loved and respected port workers simply going about their work”.
Harrison says the union agrees with the acknowledgement of the TAIC report that the stevedoring industry has a poor safety record, yet is not rigorously regulated compared to other high-risk industries.
The report noted with no best practice guidelines, no minimum training requirements and few safety-related information-sharing platforms, industry sector leadership was lacking.
It also emphasised the importance of proactive regulatory oversight of high-risk industries, particularly those with a poor safety record.
Harrison says many of the issues noted in the report were the outcomes of decades of industry deregulation, where the voice of workers had been silenced in favour of commercial priorities.
He says there is now a shift, as progress around health and safety had been made recently in the industry with the support of the outgoing Government.
The creation of a Port Health and Safety Leadership Group (PHSLG) under the leadership of Maritime New Zealand had brought in employers and union worker representatives, he says.
Primary responsibility for most areas of port health and safety is in the process of being designated as under the oversight of Maritime New Zealand, whereas it was previously divided between two regulators.
Harrison says the current development of a national Approved Code of Practice for port operations with the input of the PHSLG was another major step.
A Stevedoring Code of Practice was already in place at Port of Auckland, that had been put together by POAL, two private stevedoring companies, and the Maritime Union.
This progress went some way to meet the TAIC report call for industry collaboration and benchmarking improve safety standards, he says.
*Click here to read the full report.
