Hutchison Ports has accused the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) of “opportunistically” using an incident which resulted in a seriously injured worker at its Port Botany terminal to gather support.
Following the incident where the dockworker, who remains hospitalised, is believed to have fallen 7m from the cabin of a machine to the ground of the Sydney terminal after a collision, a Hutchison Ports spokesperson said an ITF statement calling for the company to address a “pattern of serious health and safety incidents” is exploitative.
The spokesperson said Hutchison Ports was “disappointed that a serious injury to one of our highly valued employees in Australia has been used opportunistically by the ITF.
“It is both irresponsible and insensitive for anyone to exploit this incident, especially whilst the worker remains in hospital and staff are being counselled.
“It is especially inappropriate to make comment in circumstances where investigations remain ongoing and the primary objective should be the welfare of all workers involved in this very sad event.”
ITF resolution
The ITF’s Executive Board met in London last week and passed a resolution ‘strongly urging Hutchison Ports to address a pattern of serious health and safety incidents across their global operations.’
Paddy Crumlin, ITF president and MUA national secretary, said: “This is the latest case in a pattern of serious health and safety incidents that have occurred recently in Hutchison terminals. In the past 18 months in the Asia Pacific region alone, there have been four fatal incidents at Hutchison’s JICT terminal in Jakarta.
The Hutchinson Ports’ spokesperson stressed: “A safe work environment for all our workers around the world is a top priority for us and Hutchison Ports makes substantial investment in remote control work station technology to re-engineer and improve the work place environment for our employees.”
The company has a corporate Safety Committee (SAFCOM) which provides support and guidance and disseminates best practices for all the ports owned and managed by Hutchison Ports globally. SAFCOM designates trained personnel in safety visits and audits, and investigates serious incidents and near misses.
