Working in the woods to change forest industry’s culture of risk-taking

By Gordon Hamilton

Business in Vancouver

Despite 10 years of committing itself to safe practices, WorkSafeBC says the B.C. forest industry still harbours a culture that accepts risk as part of the job. The additional cost of safety is still an issue between contractors and licensees, and workers still feel they can be blacklisted for refusing to do work that they feel is unsafe. They are not industry-wide problems, but Al Johnson, vice-president of prevention services at WorkSafeBC, said they’re enough of an issue that both forest companies and WorkSafeBC need to pay more attention to them. Logging is dangerous work, and an acceptance of danger – loggers often feel they are expected to “suck it up” when faced with risk – is part of a culture that has existed for decades in the timber harvesting sector.

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