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Auckland District Court has fined former Ports of Auckland (POAL) chief executive Tony Gibson NZ$190,000 after finding him guilty of breaching health and safety responsibilities in connection with the 2020 death of stevedore Pala\u2019amo Kalati.<\/p>\n
Gibson was sentenced on February 21, 2025, and has been ordered to pay a fine of NZ$130,000, with an additional NZ$60,000 in costs. He served as the CEO of the port from the year 2011 to 2021.<\/p>\n
This is the first time in New Zealand that the top officer of a large company has been convicted under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).<\/p>\n
Kalati who was 31 years of age at the time of the accident, was killed at the Fergusson Container Terminal in August 2020 when a container fell while the workers were unloading cargo from the MV Constantinos P.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors argued that Gibson was aware of critical safety risks at the port but failed to take sufficient actions to address them.<\/p>\n
Maritime NZ director Kirstie Hewlett says that Gibson had the knowledge, influence, and resources to improve safety measures but neglected to do so.<\/p>\n
Judge Steve Bonnar KC stated that Gibson\u2019s failure was a serious departure from his duty of care, though there was no claim of recklessness.<\/p>\n
The prosecution also highlighted previous safety violations at the port, dating back to at least 2018, and POAL\u2019s history of convictions for inadequate worker safety measures.<\/p>\n
Gibson\u2019s defence team argued that he was a committed leader with good intentions but was not fully aware of safety breaches under his management.<\/p>\n
Defence counsel John Billington KC stated that responsibility was shared across many individuals within the organisation.<\/p>\n
In 2023, POAL pleaded guilty to two charges related to Kalati\u2019s death and was fined NZ$561,000. Maritime NZ initially sought NZ$395,000 in costs from Gibson, later reducing its request to NZ$60,000.<\/p>\n
One of the contributing factors to the occurrence was the reduced supervision of work operations due to process changes brought up by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Hewlett said that the case should be a warning to business leaders about the importance of understanding and mitigating critical safety risks.<\/p>\n
She also acknowledged improvements made in New Zealand\u2019s port safety standards after Kalati\u2019s death, including the introduction of the Approved Code of Practice for cargo loading and unloading.<\/p>\n
No one from Kalati\u2019s family was present during the sentencing and Gibson and his legal team declined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n