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Health & Safety

CASE STUDY 1

Anglo American aims to prevent or minimize work-related injuries to employees and contractors. It has made the following statement:

OVERVIEW

We are committed to zero tolerance towards unsafe working practices and target zero for fatal incidents. We are addressing the factors which cause unsafe behavior and our senior executives are reinforcing the emphasis on safety through regular visits to and interaction with our operations. We call this approach visible, felt leadership. Our Safety Golden Rules clearly define priority hazards and direct each operation to develop appropriate workplace rules to address them. This approach has been implemented at the operations by leadership training, active dissemination of information on safety risks and by interactions with peer companies.

Substantial improvements have been achieved through this focus on safety and the clear demonstration that improved performance and adherence to high standards by every member of the workforce are critical.

FATAL INJURIES

Although the improvement is encouraging, we remain a long way from our ultimate goal of operating without any fatal injuries. During 2002, 25 employees and 22 contractors lost their lives at our managed operations. We regard every fatal injury as entirely unacceptable and preventable.

The fatal injury frequency rate declined by 39% from 0.033 in 2001 to 0.020 in 2002. Falls of ground, at 26%, remain the primary cause of fatal injuries, followed by moving machinery (17%) and transport-related incidents (15%). One of these fatal incidents was the murder of a security guard.

Seven of our business units have undertaken their own studies related to vehicle incidents to determine points of learning from these. Our Technical Division will review this material in order to compile a best-practice document in 2003 for use as a resource throughout our managed operations.

LOST-TIME INJURIES

We report a significant drop in both lost-time injuries (LTI) and the lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR). The 2,028 LTIs represent a 53% improvement over those reported in our first public report in 2000, and a continuation of the downward trend that we saw in 2001. The LTIFR mirrors this progress, with a 60% improvement over our 2000 figures, and a 42% improvement over 2001 levels. The main hazards associated with lost-time injuries are materials handling (20%), falling (15%), falls of ground (12%) and moving machinery (10%). A further improvement in LTIFR, to 0.64, has been targeted in 2003.

CHANGES IN LTI DEFINITION

To date, our definition of LTIs has excluded restricted work cases (RWCs). From 2003, we will be including RWCs in LTI definitions and reporting against this, to match international practices.

This will allow us to move towards calculating a total recordable case frequency rate (TRCFR), an indicator that is more comparable across different industries and activities, thereby facilitating benchmarking. The TRCFR will comprise the sum of fatal injuries, lost-time injuries, restricted work cases and medical treatment cases.

FINES

We incurred $64,705 in safety-related fines compared with $120,135 in 2001.

USE AND REPORTING OF LEADING INDICATORS

Numbers of fatal injuries, LTIs and non-LTIs, whilst useful, are lagging indicators. Our business units are focusing on identifying leading indicators such as near-hits, task-based observations, audit programs and follow-up, leadership visits, training, reporting of unsafe conditions and review of hazard identification and risk-assessment processes.

As a further contribution towards our commitment to leading indicators, our divisions were requested in 2002 to report on SHE training. The response indicates that this amounts to some 2% of total working days throughout our managed operations.

MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT

• Senior managers across all divisions have undergone safety leadership training.
• Each divisional CEO is required to include a personal SHE target in his annual Letter of Assurance addressed to the Chief Executive.
• Safety performance is an integral part of executive performance related remuneration.
• Divisional CEOs report to the Group Executive Committee on all fatal injuries.

RISK AWARENESS

The internal control requirements of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance (Turnbull) have been implemented throughout our Group, with a specific scoring mechanism developed for SHE matters. This process is linked to hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA). On a quarterly basis, each division reviews safety, health, environmental, social, financial and reputational risk assessments and the appropriate management responses to the associated hazards.

SAFETY CERTIFICATION AND AUDITS

• All managed sites have third party safety audits, and 35% hold formal NOSA or OHSAS 18001 certification. Our focus in 2003 will be to increase the number of operations holding formal certification.
• All business units will audit compliance with the Safety Golden Rules in 2003.

SAFETY GOLDEN RULES

Our Safety Golden Rules set clear, high, auditable standards for working in confined spaces and at heights, for machinery isolation, surface vehicle operation, lifting and materials handling, and also require specific business unit standards to be set to address critical mining hazards such as falls of ground.

CORPORATE SHE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The management systems questionnaire is used as a self-assessment tool by operations to determine the extent to which our SHE policy and management systems have been implemented. Our target is that all managed operations will be fully compliant with this system by the end of 2003. All major divisions indicate over 80% compliance with the safety policies and requirements.

CASE STUDY 2
REVERSE WITH A HISS INSTEAD OF A BEEP!

With ever tighter working restrictions being imposed upon our industry, and in an effort to improve relations with local residents which may be effected by our operational activities, the Day Group have been investigating innovative ways to reduce potential “noise pollution” which may cause problems at a number of environmentally sensitive depots.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Having carried out a risk assessment for the reversing of mobile plant, we have identified:

Potential hazards of reversing into other vehicles, buildings or pedestrians.

The current safety precautions - rear view cameras, mirrors, visual flashing beacon and in particular, audible warning devices when in reverse mode.

THE PROBLEM

The HSE (Health & Safety Executive) requires that all mobile plant have some form of audible and visual warning device when an item of mobile plant hits reverse mode.

Although we comply with HSE requirements, we have repeated problems with some local residents who have complained about the reversing beepers fitted to our mobile plant and lorries. These standards beepers have a single tone noise, which travels in all directions for some considerable distance, as I am sure you may have experienced, and therefore provokes local residents. The problem becomes even more apparent on clear, cold mornings.

From a Health & Safety viewpoint, employees become complacent with the familiar warning sound, as they hear it all day long whilst at work. Therefore, there is a significant risk of an individual ignoring the warning when he may be in a place of danger behind a reversing vehicle.

THE SOLUTION

What we required to solve our problem was a device which emitted an audible warning that met HSE requirements, and was distinctive enough to warn anyone who may be in the “danger zone”, but which did not travel far enough to upset local residents.

After searching the market place, we came upon a supplier who had a new device, which seemed to meet all of our requirements - the new system, which is cheap to install, will directly replace our current units, can be supplied with various decibel levels, and also the emitted sound does not travel too far.

This new device has a sound known as “Broad Band Sound” (BBS), and does not have a single tone, but a broad frequency range, which emits more of a hiss than a beep. It has the effect of attracting attention whenever it is heard, unlike old style beepers, which, in time, people ignore.

The emitted sound is directional, (as opposed to multi-directional), so that it is only heard in the direction of travel in the immediate vicinity of the machine and does not travel across the site boundary. In addition, any emitted sound quickly dissipates and is only heard at full strength within the reversing danger spot directly behind the machine.

THE RESULT

We no longer have residents complaining about our loading shovels working within our depots. In fact, these BBS units have been so successful that we have fitted them to all of our tipper fleet, and are using them as replacements for any current beepers, which may still be fitted to any other mobile plant.

Speaking with our tipper drivers, who visit a variety of sites, the new BBS devices seem to have been well received by all ground workers, once they have got over the initial novelty of a different sound when a tipper starts reversing on site.

We consider this to be an excellent solution to an everyday problem. We meet HSE requirements, keep the local residents happy by reducing the potential for noise pollution, and have a more effective unit which attracts attention when and where it needs to.


introduction | codes of conduct | social audits | socially responsible investment | health & safety | managing environmental impacts | community involvement | environmental auditing | voluntary agreements | reporting