Lives lost at work remembered
Losing a soldier in conflict in East Timor 25 years ago was what now 1 (NZ) Brigade commander Ben Bagley thought would be the worst thing that could happen at work.
Bagley told about 90 people gathered to mark Workers’ Memorial Day in Palmerston North yesterday that having to send the body of a young man back home was a harsh lesson.
But it was not the worst.
“When a colleague or soldier dies here in New Zealand in training, especially if it could have been prevented, that is more tragic, and more of a waste.”
Bagley said the irony was not lost on him, to be speaking at a Unions Manawatū-organised event, when soldiers did not even have a union.
But he said the Defence Force had committed to doing better in the health and safety department, especially in training people for the dangerous part of their jobs.
The brigade’s health and safety representative Carl Crawford outlined a health and safety mission in which everyone had a responsibility for keeping each other and the public safe.
It was based around core values of courage, commitment and comradeship, with an emphasis on doing the right things safely.
It covered not just mitigating physical risks, but extended to preventing harm from any unacceptable behaviours, sexual harassment and bullying.
Mayor Grant Smith said the city council had a dual responsibility for health and safety, both for staff, and for the wider public who used its facilities and amenities. “The city is like one large, sprawling workplace.”
He said being a safe city was one of the council’s primary goals, and with its growing transport and logistics role, that posed some challenges.
Event organiser John Shennan put the event, the 27th annual service to mourn for those who never made it home from work and fight for the rights of the living, in an international context.
He paid tribute to health and aid workers and journalists caught up in the catastrophe and genocide in Palestine.
He said aid workers who knew they were working in a dangerous place were shown no mercy, and he praised those journalists who continued doing their duty, providing information to the international community about what was going on.
Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere encouraged attendees to play their part in improving workplace safety despite anything the Government did to back-track from progress that had been made.
St Peter’s Anglican church vicar Stuart Goodin led the reflections on the role and value of work in people’s lives.
The lunchtime ceremony ended with participants invited to place a piece of Pike River coal on the memorial rock mounted above the city’s Memorial Park on Fitzroy St.