New Zealand | WorkSafe stresses that subbies deserve safety at work too following court case

WorkSafe New Zealand | A forestry subcontractor was failed by poor risk management from the two businesses above him, both of which have been sentenced for their inaction.

Misha Tremel, 39, was killed while manually felling trees on a small block at Clevedon in June 2022. The qualified tree feller had been brought in by Turoa Logging Limited, which was harvesting 7,800 tonnes of pine on behalf of the forest managers Pulley Contracting Limited.

The trees being manually cut by Mr. Tremel were windthrown, meaning they had been bent and damaged by wind. WorkSafe and the forestry industry strongly recommend that such trees are harvested using machines.

Turoa Logging Limited and Pulley Contracting Limited were sentenced at Manukau District Court where both were ordered to pay a combined total of $335,680 in fines and reparation for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

Forestry had the highest fatality rate of any sector in 2024, with 16.58 deaths per 100,000 workers.

Under its new strategy, WorkSafe is turning about 15% of its targeted frontline activity to the forestry sector because of the high rate of harm, particularly for Maōri.

— Accurate at time of publication | March 2025