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:: Sunday, April 18, 2004 ::

Out on a limb - B.C.'s forestry workers are falling at an alarming rate
Author: Luis Millan, Canadian Occupational Safety magazine
'Outsourcing can be a part of the problem,' says Mike Nielsen, a forester who recently joined B.C.'s Workers' Compensation Board. 'The big company that has the expertise with respect to supervision and delivering training does become removed from what is happening out here in the forest. It's not their fault - it's just the way the system is set up.'

Except that it's the small operations, which employ half of B.C.'s 90,000-strong forestry workforce, that perform some of the most dangerous work in the industry. More than 65 percent of serious injuries and 70 percent of work-related fatalities in the industry occur in small operations. That's why Corbeil says the new giants of the industry should be held responsible for the health and safety of its contractors and sub-contractors. 'Some of the bigger companies are getting rid of a certain phase of their logging, and that is falling, which is by far the most dangerous job out there' notes Corbeil. 'If you're a licensee and you have the right to harvest an area, you're ultimately responsible for the health and safety of everybody who works on it. Big companies shouldn't be allowed to contract out their safety responsibilities.'

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