Family's front door still closed two years after Auckland man's death at work

Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Paul Daniel Pita, 27, died in a workplace accident in Auckland's Albany in May 2020. His parents Pita Tanile and Temilo Pita are speaking out for the two-year anniversary of his death.

The front door at Paul Daniel Pita’s family home in West Auckland has not been used for two years.

Anyone who visits the Massey home has to enter through the back door.

It has been that way since May 25, 2020, the day Pita died at a workplace accident at Alto Packaging in Albany.

Five months before his death, Pita, 27, had married his long-term girlfriend.

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Paul Pita’s parents, Pita Tanile and Temilo Pita, say May 25 is always a hard day for the family.

That morning, Pita, a machine operator from Vaitupu in Tuvalu, was woken up by his father, Pita Tanile, to get ready for work.

There was nothing unusual about that day, Tanile says.

Pita had breakfast at the table – some bread and leftover meat – while his father sat on a couch in the living room.

Paul Pita was the eldest of three children and the only boy and main income earner before he died.

Before he walked out the front door, his last words to his dad were: “I’m ready to go to work, I’ll see you later.”

He never walked back through the door again.

About 9pm that day, two police officers came knocking.

“They said that ‘there has been a bad accident, your son, he got stuck in a machine’,” Tanile said.

“I wasn’t expecting anything like that at all.”

Pita was the one of 66 people who died at work in 2020, of which 47 were confirmed to be workplace accidents.

More people died at work the year before, 176, many in the Whakaari/White Island disaster.

Paul Pita’s mum, Temilo Pita, says no-one goes in or out of the front door since her son died.

The 2020 deaths were largely concentrated in three sectors: agriculture, forestry and construction.

Alto Packaging was charged by WorkSafe with exposing an individual to a risk of harm or illness, following Pita’s death.

The company was sentenced on April 6 in the North Shore District Court. It was ordered to pay a $800,000 fine, as well as compensation of $131,000 to the family and funeral costs.

The family will also receive 60% of Pita’s wages from ACC for the next five years.

In 2019, Alto Packaging was fined $250,000 for a separate workplace accident, where a worker’s fingertips were amputated after they were caught in a food packing machine.

Tanile said he would always remember the night the police came to the door.

“I had lost both my parents a few years ago and my two brothers … but that night was too much for me. Now my son was gone too.”

Paul Pita died at 27 years old, five months after he got married to his childhood sweetheart.

When the police officers left that night, Tanile banned anyone from ever using the front door again.

“This was the last door he went out of. No-one is allowed to use it because the memories of his last day are still fresh.

“Even the furniture setting in the living room has changed, it can’t be put the same way it was that day.”

Pita moved to New Zealand from Tuvalu with his family when he was 15 years old. He attended Mt Roskill Grammar School for a while then dropped out to work to help his family.

He had worked at Alto Packaging for more than five years. Before that, he had done a few odd jobs at factory and security companies. He loved music and rugby.

Tanile said not a day went by when he did not think of his son and the big plans he had for his life.

“He was my only son, this boy was one of a kind.

“Family was important to him, he had plans to migrate to Australia, buy a house, and we were going to go to Kioa in Fiji where I grew up, to do up our family home.”

Pita’s musical instruments he played with his band, Wan Soul, are in a corner, untouched, and his photos fill up the entire house.

Tanile visits his grave every day, unless he is sick or caught up with his duties as a church minister.

“I prayed really hard, I told God, ‘You gave me a son, You took him away. Now give me strength so that I can move on'.

“I can’t keep going like this because these memories will pull me down.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Alto Packaging had to pay $800,000 in compensation to the family. It was fined $800,000 and had to pay compensation of $131,000. Updated at 2.47pm, March 25, 2022.