Forestry gets serious about work safety

FILE

The new Forest Industry Safety Council (FISC) is aiming for zero fatalities and zero harm as it seeks to create safer outcomes.

National safety director Fiona Ewing said it was an ambitious target, "but we owe it to those who work in our forests and to improve the reputation of the industry".

The council was pulling together a work programme to address the findings of the Independent Forestry Safety Review.

"There are lots of examples of existing good practice and FISC will evaluate and share these and other initiatives more broadly across the sector," Ms Ewing said.

"FISC is the first example of a body representing employers, government and workers to be given a mandate to lead health and safety across an entire industry."

Most FISC initiatives would be developed by the operational advisory group and fine-tuned by technical advisory groups made up of people from across the industry with relevant expertise.

"Feedback on Safetree initiatives had also been positive, from both contractors and crew members, to forest owners, ACC and WorkSafe NZ. Initiatives include stories and messages from workplace 'heroes', communicated on Safetree, via YouTube and other social media; channels that are widely used in the crew environment," Ms Ewing said.

"Of course others prefer more traditional forms of communication. The important thing is that we engage with everyone from workers to forest owners in ways that work for them."

FISC was chaired by Dame Alison Paterson with the board made up of forest owners, farm foresters, forest contractors, workers, unions, WorkSafe NZ and ACC.