In the 2001/2002 financial year ForestrySA participated as part of the SA Government Youth Training Scheme through the employment of trainees in the Information Technology and Forest Growing and Management area. A total of four trainees were employed. All four trainees had completed their contract of training by the end of June 2002. A temporary contract for up to 12 months was offered to the Information Technology Trainee through the Trainee Employment Register.

ForestrySA has been involved in the Nunga Links Project, which seeks to formulate strategies for sustainable employment for indigenous job seekers within the Forest Industry in the South East. A series of forums and workshops have been held to determine the level of industry interest and to develop Indigenous Employment Strategies amongst stakeholders in the South East of South Australia. The strategies are nearing completion and wider industry comment will be sought shortly.

Occupational Health, Safety & Injury Management

The ForestrySA Safety Committee, which comprises two management and eight elected employee representatives, held eight meetings through the year and were responsible for the implementation of the following actions/activities –

• Development of new ForestrySA Safety Instructions for Inspections/Audits, Management of Visitors to Worksites, Electrical Safety in the Workplace, Consultation Framework OHS&W, Hazard Management, Alcohol & Drugs, Firearms Safety and Ergonomics and Manual Handling Guidelines;

• Finalisation of the review of Safety Instructions on Guideline for Climatic Heat Stress Management and High Visibility Safety Garments;

• Incorporation of OHS&W considerations into ForestrySA Purchasing and Procurement Policies and Procedures;

• Use of an Occupational Therapist to identify specific design requirements for safety footwear used by Forest Workers;

• Production and release of the ‘Safety Overall’ brief, which is to be used to provide information on statistics, current happenings and new initiatives within the OHS&W area. ‘Safety Overall’ will be produced on a quarterly basis.

ForestrySA have twelve elected Health and Safety Representatives.

The following activities have been undertaken to address ForestrySA’s severity and period of lost time due to injury –

• Task based assessments have been introduced to assist in the recruitment process to match physical job requirements, as listed in ForestrySA’s Job Dictionary, to the functional capacity of prospective employees;

• Conducting training sessions on Incident Investigation techniques for all Managers, Coordinators and Health and Safety Representatives to ensure that incidents are thoroughly investigated and proper corrective actions are identified and implemented to reduce the risk of reoccurrence;

• Conducting information sessions on Injury Management processes for all Managers and Coordinators to ensure the proper and effective management of employees on rehabilitation;

• Design of work group specific education sessions on ergonomics and bio-mechanics associated with forestry activities. The sessions are being conducted for all employees to look past manual handling and to explore further the ergonomic and physical attributes associated with a range of forestry tasks. The sessions have covered some basic anatomy so that employees gain some understanding about how particular injuries occur as a result of certain postures, work methods, etc.