Abstract
A healthy, productive and resilient workforce is important to any industry, and supporting thewellbeing of workers
is a key factor in achieving this.Worldwide, the forest industry is amongst the most physically dangerous industries
to work in. Workplace health and safety strategies have traditionally focused on improving the physical safety of
forestry workplaces. It is equally important to consider the broader wellbeing of workers, not only to ensure
their quality of life, but also to support a healthyand sustainable workforce with lowturnover. To do this, it is critical
to understand the work-related factors that affect workerwellbeing.We examine this via a survey of workers in the
Australian forest industry.We find that work-related factors known to influencewellbeing in other industries, such
as income, job security and workplace culture, are strongly correlated with forest worker wellbeing, that negative
perceptions of the forest industry by those outside it are associated with lower levels of workerwellbeing and that
the extent to which a forest industry worker has a strong work-related social identity is associated with their wellbeing.
Our findings highlight the importance of implementing workplace strategies that consider wellbeing in
broader terms than the traditional focus on physical safety.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-16 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Forestry |
Volume | 2015 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |