Port of Auckland is before the courts following a serious injury on its wharves. A stevedore was hurt in October in an incident involving an unsafe hatch on the vessel the Spirit of Independence.
Industry regulator Maritime New Zealand has brought charges against the port company under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, and the matter is due back in the Auckland District Court next month. Ports of Auckland (POAL) faces two charges with maximum fines of $500,000 and $250,000 respectively.It is the second prosecution over a serious injury at the port in less than a year.
In March the company was fined $55,000 and ordered to pay reparations of $25,000 to stevedore Neil Bower after he broke multiple bones in a 15-metre fall in January 2014.Bower fell from the top of a container onboard the Lica Maersk, hitting a crane beam and then the wharf before landing in the water.
Because of the narrow space he could not be rescued from the water for 15 minutes.
He suffered two broken legs, three fractured vertebrae, 10 fractured ribs, fractures to his sternum, a lacerated lung and two fractured tendons in his left hand.
He was hospitalised for three months and is unlikely to return to work as a stevedore.Neither Maritime New Zealand nor Ports of Auckland would give details of the latest incident.
However, court documents allege that the port company knew there was a risk of falling when stevedores were working on the hatch lid of the Spirit of Independence. The company failed to tell the ship’s owner about difficulties the wharfies had in using ladders on the vessel, and failed to tell stevedores not to walk on unprotected hatch lid edges, the documents allege.
The port also failed to require safety rails be put up around the hatch lid area, and to tell staff to keep 1.4 metres away from fall edges, the documents claim. In the January 2014 case, Bower was injured while attempting to dislodge a twist-lock that was stuck in the top of a two-high container stack.
He was using a 5-metre unlocking pole which, with the weight of the twist lock, pulled him from the top of the container. Maritime New Zealand’s investigation found that no safety rail was in place where he was working because it was covered by container lashing equipment.
Port management knew in mid-2013 that using unlocking poles to remove twist-locks was hazardous, but watersiders were not told they shouldn’t be used. The company also failed to provide adequate training in ship inspections and health and safety procedures, and failed to adequately monitor employees to identify unsafe practices, it found.
Ports of Auckland said this week it was “comfortable” with the outcome of the Bower case.
“Safety is our first priority and we remain committed to constantly improving safety in the workplace,” it said in a statement. “As a result of past initiatives, lost time injuries have declined 65 per cent since January 2013. “We have also learnt from this accident and have made changes to the way we work to improve safety.”
Personnel cages are now used when freeing jammed twist-locks, there are formal gangway briefings following ship inspections with a Hazard Board put up to inform staff of inspection findings, and there is a safety briefing at the start of each day, the port company said.
Maritime Union of New Zealand Auckland branch secretary Russell Mayn said Bower would never be the same again. “He’s not going to be able to climb around ships or anything like that,” he said. “What concerns us is the number of accidents in the port since the restructuring, the dispute, and the drive for higher productivity.
“The Neil Bower case came so close to the possibility of death, which would have been the first one on our port for quite some considerable time.Ports of Auckland finally settled its long-running dispute with the Maritime Union in February.