Abstract:

Establishing a balance between competing economic and social demands for forest and land use can present a challenge. Work in forest industry is, in terms of risk, one of the most dangerous professions. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on skills and reliability of workers dealing with timber harvesting and transport technology. In Slovakia, hiring an outsourcing company has become a common phenomenon in forest industry. The aim of the paper is to analyse the development of number of full-time employees in forest industry. Moreover, following the anthropometric data of sampling unit consisting of adult population (661men) determine the divergence from required body measurements relating to forestry machine operators in comparison to the standard ISO 3411. Following the results, a decrease in the number of workers in the forest industry in Slovakia was confirmed. In terms of three measurements, men in the sampling unit can be considered large operators, in terms of one measurement they can be considered medium operators and in terms of one measurement they exceed the recommended values describing large operators. The analysis of human height growth confirmed the increase by 4% in the course of 26 years. Following the findings we can suppose that several body measurements of the population will grow over the next decades. It will result in the new technological changes and challenges facing forestry equipment manufacturers