BY HELEN DEE
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Two recent hearings have highlighted the increasingly unsafe conditions facing workers employed by the New Zealand rail corporation, Tranz Rail. Established under state ownership, the entire rail system was sold to the U.S. corporation Wisconsin Central in 1992.

Prior to privatization, there had been a massive restructuring and job-slashing process, which by the end of 1992 had reduced the workforce to 5,400, down from 21,600 ten years earlier. Job cuts continued under the new owners.

In November 1996, in a criminal case brought by the Department of Labour, Judge P. J. Evans found Tranz Rail guilty of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of an employee. The case related to the May 1995 death of rail worker John Neha in a shunting accident. Attempting a maneuver to stop a runaway wagon at the Gracefield yard in Wellington, Neha slipped underneath the train he was riding and was killed.

Shunting traditionally requires three people, the engine driver (who has limited visibility), the shunter (who rides on the wagons as the engine driver's eyes) and the second shunter (who is on the ground as a backup). Tranz Rail had cut the second shunter in March 1995 to save labor costs.

Neha, who had been a train driver for 17 years, was retraining for the position of lone rail operator. In the past, shunters required up to five years of training. Neha had six weeks at the time of his death.

At the hearing, Judge Evans likened Tranz Rail's decision to remove the second shunter to "removing the wicket keeper" in a cricket game. It was, he said, a business decision. He fined Tranz Rail NZ$30,000 (US$20,550).

Inexperience was also a contributing factor in the June 1996 death of Blair Thomas at the Westfield depot in Auckland, according to the Transport Accident Investigation Commission.

Thomas was riding on the front of a locomotive when he signaled to the driver to stop. The driver braked immediately and Thomas was flung off the train and crushed.

Both men had been hired as temporary handymen six months before the accident. They attended a three-week "service assistant" course three months later, learning how to drive and direct trains in the rail yard. They had not had formal supervision since.

Ross Wilson, secretary of the Railway and Maritime Workers Union, said the men had not been adequately trained, and that low staffing levels meant rail employees were often doing duties beyond their level of experience.  
 
 
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