To address the social issues faced by small and medium-sized forest operations, I grouped my findings into two sub-sections: forestry workers and local communities (including Indigenous peoples).
3.6.3.1 Relation with forestry workers
Small and medium-sized forestry businesses have modest working conditions
As previously noted, small and medium-sized forestry businesses were less organizationally and technologically sophisticated than large enterprises. This condition had also translated into more modest OHS performance and working conditions. I will explore two aspects accounting for this: the formality of this sub-sector, and the quality of its manpower.
More modest OHS requirements and working conditions: My findings suggested that small forest operations had the worst working conditions and OHS requirements; and this performance improved as the size of forest enterprises increased (usually, in medium-sized firms). As this union representative observed:
“Look, we always say that we have two realities: one is the reality of the large companies and the other one is the reality of the small companies. So you will be able to find luxury forest camps in some sectors that belong to those two large companies [large forest corporations] but there is another reality too, in small forest operations and sawmills where there are no such camps, where forestry workers have to sleep in very precarious conditions.” (interview with IW-MB-01).
This respondent provided an example of a small forest operation that carried people, animals and fuel on the same vehicle, which contravened the regulations on minimal working conditions128. Other respondents129 within the industry were of a similar view, claiming that
many small forest operations – specifically, those concerned with timber harvesting – were run without complying with the minimum OHS standards, such as no use of protective personal equipment (PPEs), lack of OHS training, and little supervision from OHS experts.
Consistent with this, INFOR (2015a) statistics show that the accidents rate of logging operations (c. 3.1%, per 100 forestry workers), although lower than that of the timber processing industry, is characterised by a greater severity: 22,103 average lost days caused by accidents were reported in 2014. Despite the lack of specific statistics at different forestry businesses scales, there are higher rates of accidents for small and medium-sized (over 4.7% per 100 forestry workers) than large enterprises in Chile (less than 3.2% per 100 forestry workers).130 Therefore, the OHS performance may be even worse in non-formalized small forest enterprises since labour officials can, in most cases, only access formalized enterprises131 through planned inspections and public accusations. 132
The manpower is generally older and the sub-sector less attractive than large forestry businesses: Arguably, as my interviews with some respondents 133 pointed out, the poor benefits and difficult working conditions make this sector particularly unattractive to forestry workers, for two reasons.
First, qualified forestry workers in their most productive years do not choose to work in this sub-sector. Rather, as stated by this researcher, older workers usually choose this sub- sector:
“In large forestry businesses it is very hard to find forestry workers over 50 years old. This is because once over 50 years workers begin to show health problems and they are ‘invited’ to quit their jobs. They present medical certificates because of diseases or aches; then those medical certificates are no longer accepted and soon they migrate to small or medium-sized enterprises to make their living.” (interview with R-MB-03).
129 Interviews with R-MB-03 and PFB-VIII-s01. 130 See SUSESO (2015).
131 They consider the companies from which they have sufficient and “formal” information unless they received
denounces on non-formalized forest operations. Interviews with La-IX-01 and R-MB-03.
132 There is sufficient consistency between respondents (a labour authority and one union representative) to say that
the frequency and quality of such planned inspections (through programs) were less than optimal (interviews with La- IX-01 and IW-MB-01). Additionally, in 2013 the website of the Labour Authority announced that these inspections would be held across many regions but during no more than a couple of weeks of the year – arguably, due to the lack of resources (Dirección-del-Trabajo, 2013).
Also, very young (18-20 years old) and unskilled workers who cannot be hired anywhere134 else chose jobs showing the poorest working conditions and OHS performance, as generally occurred in small forest operations.
Second, this sub-sector was less attractive than large forestry businesses because of their modest working conditions and benefits – particularly wages – as compared with large forestry businesses135.
Since this sub-sector did not attract many forestry workers, it was particularly affected by the shortage of qualified labour, causing it to resort to less-skilled workers. Hence, it was usual that people from local communities, whether peasants and Indigenous136, were hired in small forest operations, having little or no formal training at all in many cases.
3.6.3.2 Relations with local communities
Small and medium-sized forestry businesses: positive relations with local communities
My interview findings in small and medium-sized forestry enterprises provided a completelydifferent picture from those with large forestry enterprises, in terms of their relations with their communities, as I will discuss below.
Collaborative agreements between companies and communities: Most respondents137 within this sub-sector were of the view that the close relations they had with their local communities facilitated win-win agreements that benefitted both them and such communities. Usually, such agreements consisted of a number of actions spearheaded by the firm. They ranged from the maintenance of shared local roads and schools to providing jobs for communities and investment in projects for the development of communities. In turn, the community took care of the forest plantation, acting, for example, like informal forest rangers. A small forest enterprise’s CEO illustrated this:
“In social terms we have always had good relations with the neighbours; we have provided them with jobs. We have also authorized them to collect non- timber forest products such as mushrooms and wild fruits, we allow them to pick up firewood as well.” (interview with PFB-VIII-n01).
134 Interview with La-IX-01. 135 Interview with IW-MB-01.
136 Interviews with IW-MB-01 and L-VIII-01.
These collaborative agreements acted, in practice, as a form of social licence to operate these forestry businesses since the disconnection with the views and needs of local communities may have serious consequences as some villagers suggested.138
Finally, one forest manager139 commented that his company was particularly concerned with the stability of the jobs they offered to local people, making all the necessary efforts within their financial and technical constraints (since most of their operations were temporary). For example, this company tried to provide at least casual jobs to local community members throughout different periods of the year. Therefore, the company made the effort to provide, at least, some sources of complementary incomes to help to sustain the livelihoods of their local communities.