AWF pauses informal car pooling week before inquest into fatal crash of employees

Major labour recruiter AWF has told an inquest it has halted informal car pooling of workers.

Two of its temp workers, Jake Ginders and Floyd Harrise, died in a car crash in 2019 after AWF helped arrange them to carpool.

Harris should not have been driving as he had only a learner licence that was not checked by AWF.

On Thursday, AWF senior managers told a coroner in Palmerston North it had still been helping set up carpools.

However, AWF general manager Fleur Board said a week ago she instructed all branches not to help arrange worker’s transport arrangements any longer, while its approach was reconsidered.

This was a “pause”, she said.

Since the 2019 fatalities, unpaid work travel did not trigger licence checks by the company.

AWF did check licence status if a worker was being paid for the travel time.

This was tightened up after May 2019, AWF told the coroner.

Board, who has worked at AWF for almost 15 years, said she did not accept AWF should only hire workers with restricted or full driver licences.

That would be “unfair” to people with a learner’s licence or no licence, and most of its jobs did not require a licence, she said.

After the crash, AWF asked staff to check on the roadworthiness of worker vehicles used in carpooling but stopped as they were not qualified to do this, instead limiting this to ensure there was a warrant of fitness, Board said.

They also did not check driver competence beyond having a licence, for the same reason.

In both cases, AWF believed it was reasonable to rely on Waka Kotahi’s licencing regime, she said.

WorkSafe assessed AWF in August 2019, months after the crash, and decided the changes to its worker travel practices, revolving round extra licence checks, were adequate. It did not prosecute anyone.

Those practices and policies still apply – however under the new pause were now being reviewed, according to AWF’s testimony on Thursday.