Former CEO Of New Zealand’s Largest Container Port Fined $190,000 Over Dockworker’s Death

Auckland District Court has fined former Ports of Auckland (POAL) chief executive Tony Gibson NZ$190,000 after finding him guilty of breaching health and safety responsibilities in connection with the 2020 death of stevedore Pala’amo Kalati.

Gibson was sentenced on February 21, 2025, and has been ordered to pay a fine of NZ$130,000, with an additional NZ$60,000 in costs. He served as the CEO of the port from the year 2011 to 2021.

This is the first time in New Zealand that the top officer of a large company has been convicted under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).

Kalati who was 31 years of age at the time of the accident, was killed at the Fergusson Container Terminal in August 2020 when a container fell while the workers were unloading cargo from the MV Constantinos P.

Prosecutors argued that Gibson was aw…

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