Most of the observations in the royal commission report into the Pike River disaster refer, of course, to a coal mine in which 29 men died. Yet the observations could as easily have been applied to the forestry industry. There, 28 men have died in accidents since 2008, including six so far this year.
Both sectors will always involve dangerous work, but it is apparent the peril has been exacerbated in recent years by a number of shortcomings. Reduced regulator oversight, lax manager attitudes, inexperience, and pressure to work in hazardous conditions have been seen in both mining and forestry. It is therefore important that health and safety improvements forced on mining since Pike River are also brought to forestry.
The sectors share characteristics that have paved the way for unsafe workplace cultures. Mining can be prone to pressures arising from over-promising and under-delivering of production. In forestry, there is a similar propensity for contractors to commit themselves to impossible targets. In both, this tendency led to dangerous practices, not the least being worker fatigue through long hours on the job. These were not checked, partly because diminished state resourcing has reduced the number of inspectors. In the case of forestry, the outcome has been a spike in fatal accidents.
This has occurred despite some efforts to halt the trend. The industry has, for example, developed a new code of practice for health and safety, and introduced random drug testing and on-site training. So far, however, the death toll indicates the risks of the job are still not being managed effectively.
More needs to be done, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has made a start by putting the industry on notice that its commitment to safety must improve. This month, it began a crackdown, with inspectors due to visit all 330 contracting operations to check compliance with safety codes.
