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THE CEO OF a building firm in New Zealand has been accused of “racial profiling” after he appeared to single out Irish workers for shoddy work on earthquake repairs.
Construction firm Fletcher has been working on earthquake damaged homes in the Canterbury region. It’s been found that some of the foundation work does not meet building standards.
Fletcher says that much of the work was carried out by contractors but, addressing the issue on Television New Zealand, Fletcher CEO Graham Darlow appeared to point the finger of blame at Irish workers:
There may be a few that we can’t find the contractor, maybe there’s a few who’ve gone out of business, maybe they’re gone back to Ireland. For those, Fletcher will be fronting for the cost of that repair.
Details of the sub-standard work was revealed by New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment who described most of the shortcomings as “relatively minor and easy to fix”.
Fletcher says that they are to recheck the repair work of 5,700 homes out of the 69,000 homes involved of the repair programme. They estimate that 1,200 will need to be repaired and have assured customers that they will cover the cost.
In a statement, Darlow said that the company is working with working with contractors to ensure repair works are made but the names of the contractors invloved were not released.
His comments linking shoddy work with Ireland has, however, led to a backlash among Irish people in New Zealand.
Nancy Kane / TwitterFletcher Building Graham Darrow suggesting Irish responsible for shoddy foundations -talk about passing the buck - take ownership Fletchers
— Nancy Kane (@irishkiwi09) August 19, 2015
The Irish People in New Zealand Facebook page has also been full of complaints about Darlow’s comments on the national broadcaster.
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Definitely the right thing to do,spiders can be so dangerous
Cruel psycho burning an innocent creature, he’s deserves to be torched.
Obviously not as dangerous as the lighter.
I hope the Spider was all right
Wow!level of stupidity taken to a new low on this one
Surely the level of stupidity would be at a new high? Levels of common sense would be at a new low..
another bright spark
Murica!
video has been removed
My avatar has never been more appropriate.
I’d summon all seven levels of Hell onto this Earth before I’d let a spider come near me.
The number of times I’ve seen completely morons smoking at petrol bowsers I am surprised we don’t see more of this sort of thing.
Petrol Head
He’s allowed to drive and own a gun! Terrifying.
Seems reasonable to me ;)
Ok people say it with me: “Darwin Awards”!
Seriously though, what on earth is wrong with some people?!?! Our brains are supposed to be more powerful than computers, I guess in this guy’s case the computer is an abacus!
It was a bloody spider! What’s wrong with just flicking it away if your such. A whimp!
Brain donor!
“If you want to live and thrive.
Let a spider run alive”.
(Very wise old saying)
.
Cobwebs save the human race from being made extinct by insects.
I understand his pain… It’s either going to be me or the spider it’s that simple!!!
A true Republican!
Darwin award of the year candidate
Wasn’t that 4 weeks ago?
…… understandable!
brains to burn but too thick to LIGHT
What colour is his hair
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