The Talley’s defamation trial today heard of a forklift near-catastrophe, and a manager downplaying some WorkSafe concerns but defending Talley’s safety efforts.
Talley’s is suing TVNZ and its Christchurch-based 1News reporter Thomas Mead over six stories published in 2021 and 2022.
The stories covered allegations of poor health and safety at some South Island plants, and mismanagement at the seafood, meat, dairy and vegetable firm’s Injury Management Unit.
The High Court at Auckland this morning heard about potential risks to staff from bins stacked up and steps Talley’s took to address safety around the stacks.
TVNZ counsel Erik Nilsson cross-examined Mike Kerr, who was health and safety coordinator at Talley’s Ashburton, about events in around 2021.
“Structural integrity of bins can be quite important,” Nilsson said. “That can be one of the reasons why there could be collapses of bins in the coolstore.”
“It could be a factor,” Kerr replied.
“There had been a pretty serious incident in the Ashburton coolstore causing serious injury some years prior,” Nilsson said.
“Yes,” Kerr replied.
The incident wasn’t specified but in 2015, forklift driver Te Atatū Hemi was paralysed after being crushed by bins toppling off a forklift.
She was in the paddle track area, where product arrived on a conveyor and was then moved into bulk bins positioned under the conveyor.
Talley’s was ordered to pay $181,204.58 in reparations after that incident.
Kerr today said a bin was constructed on a normal pallet.
If a forklift driver came in too low, they could break the pallet beneath the bin.
“They’re nailed up underneath like a normal pallet.”
The court today heard an employee was struck and injured in a May 2020 Ashburton incident.
Justice Pheroze Jagose was shown a document discussing the incident.
“The employee was extremely lucky to escape with fairly minor injuries. However, the consequences could have been catastrophic.”
Two bins collapsed, then were deemed dangerous and dispatched to the dump.
”Lack of full check of bin conditions” and “poor bin quality” were identified by Kerr as factors influencing the mishap.
“It could be the product of the forklift driver’s process,” Kerr told the court.
“He may well have, in his process, damaged the bin as well.”
Kerr said there was a seven-day stand-down, “which means the forklift driver did breach some process”.
He added: “We would have found that he, within his process, would have made some fundamental errors against his training.”
Asked how sure he was, Kerr said he was “confident” that would be the case.
A company document said: “Talley’s Management will not tolerate any further violations and will be taking a firm approach going forward which will result in disciplinary action being taken.”
That was one matter outlined as hazard identification and risk management were discussed.
The food company’s responses to WorkSafe recommendations were also discussed.
Kerr at one point told colleagues that “improvement notices are near the very bottom of the hierarchy” in terms of steps WorkSafe could take.
Kerr told the court he stood by assertions the improvement notices were extremely common in New Zealand.
“We took it seriously.”
“So why are you pointing out that they’re being handed out like lollies?” Nilsson asked.
“In context ... they spoke quite highly about some aspects of what we were doing … I was quite heartened by some of their responses to me on the day.”
Kerr said the company had been committed to “continuous improvement”.
The court also heard WorkSafe recommended Talley’s develop and improve a safety system for construction, testing, inspection, maintenance, repair and destruction of the timber bins at mid-Canterbury’s 125 Fairfield Rd and 109 Works Rd sites.
Another WorkSafe document related to an August 4, 2021, site visit to Talley’s Group Ashburton Division at Fairfield Rd.
In a Talleys document four days later, the agenda was to develop a safe system of work for the timber bins in line with what WorkSafe said.
“We currently have no verified base integrity/strength information”, an internal Talley’s document about bins said later that month.
In a separate issue, another WorkSafe document related to the risk of falling from heights due to an absence of sufficient rails on scaffolding.
“Workers are exposed to the risk of falling into the plant from scaffold,” WorkSafe said.
Kerr said Talley’s took immediate steps to address those concerns.
“We actioned that straight away.”
The court also heard Talley’s brought in a machine safety engineer from EIS engineering and industrial electrical specialists.
He was asked to assess bin construction, machinery, hazards, likelihood of various injuries, risk assessment, personal protective equipment, and traffic management risk.
A Talley’s document on bin instability and load bearing capacity showed bin designs were assessed and deemed fit to withstand loads put onto them.
“We added some improvements,” Kerr told the court.
He said Talley’s had been prepared to examine all options around improving bins and concluded that the bins as they were were its best option at the time.
“The predominant problem was in our stacking process. There wasn’t a great deal of tolerance” and one needed to get the bins stacked up very straight, he added.
The trial continues.
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation and courts. He has previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.