Subby

Classy work from the Sunday Times

A major newspaper report on the death of a Fletcher Concrete employee has raised public awareness of management responsiveness and the price of serious breaches.
Esera Visesio, known as “Ezra”, died at Stresscrete’s South Auckland yard when a wire rope on a gantry crane snapped, dropping the 5800kg precast concrete panel it was lifting, the Sunday Times reported in its 2300 word feature “Death of a working man” on July 8, 2007.
“A court found Fletcher Concrete and Infrastructure (trading as Stresscrete) knew the crane had no safety device – having been told repeatedly by workers and maintenance contractors – but used it anyway,” writes Times reporter Tony Wall, using source material provided by the Department of Labour.
The March 2005 workplace death earned Stresscrete a record $225,000 fine in New Zealand for an industrial accident, and the written ruling saw Papakura District Court judge John Cadenhead note that Fletchers had already paid around $250,000 to a number of parties.
Employment lawyer Grant Nicholson of Kensington Swan says average fines for workplace safety breaches have increased from $5-$6000 in 2003-4 to an average $10,000 now.
But Judge Cadenhead’s order against Fletcher Concrete is at the top of the scale allowed by the Health and Safety in Employment Act [see subby 1:02 on sentencing trends].
Grant says this it should be noted that the penalty for Ezra’s death was “all calculated as a fine not reparations”—due to the prior payment from Fletcher Concrete. A second worker hurt in the incident received $20,000 in personal compensation.