Mark Ginders, left, with a photo of his son Jake when he was younger, and Jake's uncle Wayne Ginders (right). Photo: RNZ / Phil Pennington
The work safety watchdog kept the families of two temp workers killed in a road crash in the dark, and now says it regrets that.
At an inquest in Palmerston North on Thursday, the families spoke out against WorkSafe and police for leaving them feeling abandoned
Seven months after Jake Ginders and Floyd Harris - both on learners' licences - died in a road smash in January 2019, WorkSafe took its first look. Floyd was driving Jake to work as arranged by leading labour recruitment firm AWF.
But the Crown agency did not tell the Ginders family that it visited AWF in August 2019.
Jake's aunt Diane Chandler said WorkSafe also never told them it had approved the changes AWF had made, sparked by the deaths, in how it did informal carpooling.
"We feel badly let down by both WorkSafe and the police because I contacted WorkSafe in the very, very early days about this workplace death," she said.
A lawyer for the families told the inquest the lack of a timely investigation had impacted the inquest - it "presents difficulties with the evidence we have got now".
A coroner's minute said "there was no enforcement action, and no report was completed into the events" by WorkSafe.
Chandler said Jake's father, Mark, had remained "stuck in anger" for years.
"We lost faith. It added to our despair because we believed the authorities did not care and had washed their hands of us."
Floyd's mother, Sharon Harris, said her family was left grieving, while at the same time believing the agencies would step up for them - when that did not happen.
"I didn't even know that there was an investigation until I got an email on my birthday to say that they had initial investigations, and that they became involved on the 19th of July 2019, and that they had closed the case in only 27 days," she told the hearing about WorkSafe, in closing remarks on the second day.
She told the Ginders "they are the only people that know what I am feeling, and I acknowledge their pain".
She did not hold it personally against anyone at AWF, Harris said.
"I know that they are only human too."
AWF's lawyer Matthew Ferrier, in brief closing remarks, thanked the families for that.
"AWF thanks them for the way in which they've approached the inquest.
"I also just want to emphasise, and I know there's a level of disagreement about this too, that AWF from its perspective, has tried, since the day of the accident, to engage openly and honestly with the families and the authorities."
New investigation possible
WorkSafe had its lawyer at the inquest, who noted it was notified of the crash in July 2019 - but there was confusion over who notified it.
The lawyer acknowledged the Ginders family pushed very early on for a full health and safety investigation.
Police did not do one, though they could have. Neither did WorkSafe. Sharon Harris asked the coroner to step in now, to change that.
Coroner Janet Anderson said she was "considering referring this matter back to WorkSafe".
This would open a new investigation period, and the possibility of a prosecution - a process which usually snaps shut 12 months after a workplace death.
WorkSafe, in a statement, said its assessment of AWF in 2019 was a "formal, planned and systematic process to identify the level of compliance" with health and safety laws.
"WorkSafe accepted the changes in AWF's procedures, and no enforcement action was required," it said.
These included more use of the Waka Kotahi driver check service, and audits to make sure licence checks were being done.
WorkSafe operations general manager Pelin Fantham said in a statement, "we regret our actions were not communicated directly to the families at the time", though they did eventually find out through the coroner.
"We acknowledge communication with families has not been as good as it could be in the past, which is a gap we've now resolved via the creation of our dedicated victim and coronial services team, which supports operational teams with whānau contact."
The Ginders and Harris families questioned why, then, they had not heard from WorkSafe up to this day.
AWF told the inquest it had carried on with carpooling since the crash, till now.
Where it pays the workers who drive others, it made sure - unlike in the Floyd Harris case - to check their licence status, it said.
But where they were not being paid, licences were still not checked. AWF admitted at the hearing this carried risks.
Later, its general manager, Fleur Board, announced that just last week, AWF had suspended all carpooling as it reviewed its practices.
Board and Jason Cherrington, chief executive of AWF's parent group, the NZX-listed company Accordant, refused to answer RNZ's questions about that suspension, or the extent it had been carpooling up to that point, saying they did not want to preempt the coroner's findings.
The inquest heard that AWF used to run vans from its bases to get its people to work sites, but stopped that some years ago.
AWF's team leader of Floyd Harris and Jake Ginders, told the inquest neither man raised concerns with him about the safety of the commute.
In hindsight, the commute was too far, he said.
The manager, who is not allowed to be named, had been trying to fill at short notice a request for multiple workers from a work site at Oringi near Dannevirke.
"Oversights can be made in these circumstances," he said.
The industry was "fast-paced and target oriented". He suggested team leaders should not have to get so involved operationally that their first focus went on filling positions.
Board rejected the operational argument, saying an experienced manager was best placed to do this work.
She told the inquest worker surveys showed people felt AWF looked out for them, and emphasised a worker who turned down a job would not face any repercussions, such as other shifts drying up.
Manawatu Unions spokesperson John Shennan, who sat through the inquest, said the case highlighted the power imbalance between temp workers encouraged to carpool and the company, which benefited from the workers being able to get to work.
"The events ... are the outcome of the contracting-out model of employment - casualisation, long hours or work, slapdash, lacksadaisical health and safety practices," Shennan said.
Temporary labour recruiters place 30,000-40,000 people into blue-collar work each week.
