Worker Safety and Protected Disclosures.
Aimex is a marine engineering firm in Nelson. This is from their website:
We believe in a positive safe working environment and work hard to be the employer of choice within our industry. We work proactively with health and safety compliance and other strategic initiatives to ensure our valued team get to enjoy what they do, in a safe and rewarding environment.
Yeah right - the reality is very different. In 2021, the company was fined $340,000 for a 2019 incident where a new apprentice was exposed to a toxic vapour that left him with a long-term brain injury. The worker was in a poorly ventilated area and inhaled toxic brake fluid fumes. When he didn’t make morning smoko a workmate went looking for him and found him unresponsive in the engine room of a vessel being refitted. He was not wearing the PPE safety equipment issued to him. This incident - incident 2 - resulted in a fine of $340,000. There were numerous failures by the company, and the judge found ample opportunity for the company to have prevented this incident.
Stephen Sullivan
WorkSafe investigated incident 2 and became aware there had been a very similar incident just the week before - incident 1. Regarding this previous incident the employee had reported the incident to Bill Sullivan, being in charge of health and safety for Aimex. Work safe investigators questioned Bill about the previous incident, and initially Bill denied any knowledge of incident 1. The managing director, Stephen Sullivan (the brother of Bill) also seemed to suffer temporary memory loss when he too initially denied any knowledge of the previous incident.
Martin Byrne
In mid-2021 Martin Byrne was employed as the new chief operating officer who made further enquiries. What he discovered greatly concerned him and he made a protected disclosure statement to Work Safe. This resulted in the Police launching an investigation where they found a copy of the incident report that both Bill and Stephen had initially denied any knowledge of. Stephen Sullivan was convicted of perverting the course of justice, and his brother Bill pleaded guilty to making a false statement.
Aimex has appointed a new general manager, and undoubtedly they wish to put this incident behind them. It speaks volumes about the culture of the company when (by their actions) some in senior management believe that the means (even unlawful means) justify the end result. Thanks to the personal integrity of one individual, who made a protected disclosure, evidence showing the coverup of incident 1 was found, resulting in successful prosecutions.
Having worked in farming, forestry, and construction, we all knew that when things went wrong, we had to quickly cover things up in the hope nobody would report anything to management (unless there had been a serious injury in which case we had to invent a somewhat plausible story - if possible).
40 years later I don’t believe a lot has changed. We average around 60 to 80 deaths per year, over the last decade. Even this figure is highly debatable because it doesn’t include people dying from being exposed to health risks such as asbestos. While this is slowly trending down, compared to the OECD we are one of the most dangerous countries in the (OECD) world for a worker. Compared to Australia our death rate for workers is consistently and significantly higher than theirs over the last 2 decades.
I think it is naïve to expect any significant improvement in worker safety. WorkSafe is overworked and understaffed and underfunded - which has been a deliberate decision by both Labour and National. The penalties for breaches, while significantly increasing over the years, are not a major deterrent for larger firms. I tell my employer clients a significant injury will cost somewhere around $250 k in penalties and fines, and around $500 k for a death. Not much of a deterrent for a large employer. And the threat of prosecutions of directors in their personal capacities, is a step in the right direction, but seems to have had little impact.
Turning a blind eye to safety shortcuts can kill people, and both workers and management need to find the courage to put their own safety and the safety of their colleagues ahead of the interests of the company. And if all else fails – Aimex shows us a protected disclosure can have a significant impact, with both WorkSafe and Police prosecutions. However, in terms of financial impact, Stephen Sullivan remains a significant Aimex shareholder, and so I doubt there has been a major financial impact for him personally….