Labour promises to introduce a corporate homicide offence carrying a punishment of life imprisonment, if it’s elected.<\/p>\n
Some of the families of those killed in the Pike River Mine disaster have long campaigned for the charge.<\/p>\n
Labour workplace relations and safety spokesperson Jan Tinetti said New Zealand had a sobering record on health and safety at work.<\/p>\n
“We have some of the highest workplace deaths in the developed world,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This is a glaring hole that we don’t have as a deterrent for those people, those employers that are not ensuring that there’s strong health and safety provisions in their workplace.”<\/p>\n
Under the party’s proposed law, a person or company could be found guilty, if they had a legal duty of care, and exposed anyone to a risk of death or serious injury, and if someone then died.<\/p>\n
An individual could be sentenced to life in prison and companies could be fined up to $10 million.<\/p>\n
Tinetti hoped that would be enough incentive for companies to strengthen health and safety practices, so no prosecutions would be necessary.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom had 30 convictions since the offence was introduced in 2008, she said.<\/p>\n
Tinetti said Labour had worked with unions, employers and families of the Pike River victims on the policy.<\/p>\n
“We all remember those 29 men and we do not want to see that happen again in this country,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This could be the deterrent that would have stopped or could have stopped that happening, but it is hard to say in hindsight.”<\/p>\n
‘Fantastic’ – Pike River campaigner<\/p>\n
In 2010, a methane-fuelled explosion ripped through the Pike River coal mine on the South Island’s West Coast, killing 29 workers.<\/p>\n
Sonya Rockhouse’s 21-year-old son Ben was one of them.<\/p>\n
She and Anna Osborne, who’s husband Milt also died, had since campaigned for tougher health and safety laws, including a corporate manslaughter charge.<\/p>\n
Rockhouse said Labour’s policy was “fantastic” and hoped to see it eventually introduced into law.<\/p>\n
“If we had had corporate homicide or corporate manslaughter, we wouldn’t be where we are now,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s too late for us… but at least we can leave a legacy of knowing that those that come in the future will be far better off in the workplace.”<\/p>\n
She hoped the threat of life in prison or a big fine would be enough to make change.<\/p>\n
“I think the majority, it will make them think twice about making sure that health and safety is a priority in their companies,” she said.<\/p>\n
“People who are in charge and who knowingly don’t make the workplace safe, they need to be held to account.”<\/p>\n
Rockhouse said her work would never be done, and she and Osborne, among others, would push governments of any stripe to ensure people were kept safe at work.<\/p>\n
They recently rallied against an overhaul of health and safety laws, which they warned would risk a workplace disaster.<\/p>\n
The minister in charge, Brooke van Velden, said the bill offered commonsense changes that increased certainty, eased compliance costs and improved safety.<\/p>\n