The department today lifted a suppression order which had prevented the names of those charged with health and safety failures at the Pike River Coal mine from being revealed.
The charges were laid at the Greymouth District Court and each carries a maximum penalty of $NZ250,000.
Peter Whittall is among three parties charged over the disaster, with Pike River Coal and VLI Drilling also having charges laid against them.
Whittall has been charged with eight offences of acquiescing or participating in the failures of Pike River Coal as an employer and as a principal.
He has also been charged with four offences of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure no action or inaction of his as an employee harmed another person.
In response to the charges, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, the law firm representing Whittall, said he would defend all alleged charges against him.
“Mr Whittall is a coal miner, he comes from a coal mining town and has worked in underground mines all his life … Mr Whittall will fight being scapegoated now,” the firm said.
“He is deeply saddened by the Department of Labour’s actions and intends to vigorously defend all charges laid against him.”
The law firm said the charges laid against Whittall were hazy and didn’t directly reference the November 19, 2010 explosion or the 29 fatalities.
“There is no charge that Mr Whittall breached any mining regulation or that there were inadequate egresses from the mine,” Minter Ellison Rudd Watts said.
“Rather the charges relate to operations at the mine on or about 19 November 2010, at a time when Mr Whittall was CEO based in Wellington and handling corporate – not operational – matters.”
Peter Whittall has been terminated from his role at the company, with his departure date set as December 1.
PRC receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers said Whittall was informed of his termination at the beginning of September.
“He was given a notice at the beginning of the month,” PwC receiver Malcolm Hollis told ILN.
The development of the Pike River mine was a daunting prospect according to Whittall, who said he lacked the operational support he had in his years with BHP Billiton.
Whittall started at Pike as the general manager in 2005 and became CEO in mid-September 2010, roughly two months before the first underground explosion rocked the mine and claimed 29 lives.
At the final day of phase one of the Royal Commission hearings in Greymouth in July, Whittall said Pike River was just a mountainside and a feasibility study when he started and the project even lacked roads for site access.
“Often after you take these jobs on, you don't know what you've had until you've lost it,” he said.
Whittall said he was with BHP for 24 years and had access to “any system you want and any person you need” during this time.
“When I joined Pike I had literally no one,” he said.
“I had no systems, we didn’t even have a payroll system.
“New Zealand Oil and Gas paid us but we had nothing.”
Meanwhile, VLI Drilling has been charged with a total of three offences of failing to ensure the safety of its employees and contractors at the mine, which relate to the maintenance and operation of machinery.
The DOL said Pike River Coal, which is currently in receivership, had been charged with ten offences over the disaster.
“These failures relate to methane explosion management, strata management, ventilation management, mitigating the risk and impact of an explosion and health and safety management for contractors, subcontractors and their employees,” the DOL said.
The decision to reveal the parties charged over the disaster was made after a teleconference between all parties late this afternoon, convened by the Greymouth District Court.
The department’s investigative process, culminating in the laying of charges, has taken 357 days to complete.
It has been the most complex investigation ever undertaken by the department.
