Performance and practices
The Journey to Zero
We're proud of what some of our sites are achieving on Heath and Safety, but we know there are others with much further to go. Overall we registered 2.3 injuries for every million working hours in 2008, compared with 3.3 in 2007, and some sites recorded no lost time to injuries at all.
The trend is clearly going the right way, and we are now actively using some of our best-performing sites in Western Europe, Canada, and Brazil to help drive higher standards elsewhere in the world, where a culture of safety is not so well-established.
Health and Safety Day
The 2009 Health and Safety Day was entitled 'Leading the Journey', which knits Leading by Example and Journey to Zero seamlessly together. The 2009 Day placed more emphasis on health and the sharing of best practices within the Group-wide health network. This year's Health and Safety Day took place on 28 April which coincided with the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) World Day for Safety and Health at Work and underlies the fact that the event will now become more integrated into the ongoing Health and Safety process started with the signing of the Global Agreement on 3 June, 2008.
There are also new Fatality Prevention standards, which are particularly important in situations which have given rise to severe accidents in the past. The first 4 standards cover the procedures to follow when dealing with electric currents, working at height, work relating to railways, and working in confined spaces. All our sites have assessed their own procedures against these new standards, and are in the process of implementing them. Further standards will be introduced later this year.
A common model
We've now established a single operating framework on Health and Safety for the whole ArcelorMittal Group, which makes sharing learning and ideas much more straightforward. Every ArcelorMittal employee is now aware of 'our rules', which are:
- Come to work in a 'fit and able' condition,
- Use fall protection or prevention equipment whenever you need to,
- Follow electric current isolation, and confined space entry procedures at all times, and
- Never disable a safety device.
We have a single injury tracking database to monitor time lost to accidents, and the causes of significant incidents. The plan is to add occupational health information in the next few months.
There are also new Fatality Prevention standards, which are particularly important in situations which have given rise to severe accidents in the past. The first 4 standards cover the procedures to follow when dealing with electric currents, working at height, work relating to railways, and working in confined spaces. All our sites have assessed their own procedures against these new standards, and are in the process of implementing them. Further standards will be introduced in 2009.
Likewise our senior managers now have Health and Safety objectives included in their performance targets, which are directly related to their remuneration.
Shop floor audits
This is a good example of the benefits of sharing best practice across the group. Shop floor audits in our plants are designed to showcase best practice, reinforce existing standards and identify opportunities for improvement. At their best they're an open, honest process that involves everyone concerned in a positive discussion about the best way forward.
The approach adopted by our best-performing plants is now being applied across the group, and at every level of the organisation from first-line managers to senior management. The process is being monitored by the corporate Health and Safety department, and supported by training programmes in 13 different languages at ArcelorMittal University.
The results of a common approach are already evident. To cite only one example, our Saldahna plant in South Africa recorded no injuries in the first 3 months of 2008, compared with an average of 2.76 per million hours worked in the same period in 2007.
Occupational health and well-being
We're now in the process of finalising a group-wide approach to health and well-being. This will cover work-related problems such as dust emissions and noise, as well as wider issues like smoking, alcohol and HIV/AIDS. These can also have a potential impact on productivity and absenteeism at work, especially in markets like South Africa, where HIV/AIDS is a particular challenge for us. We're encouraging employees here to get tested, and supporting those who prove to be HIV-positive. This is backed up with educational and awareness programmes across the business. New health initiatives are also being introduced in both Kazakhstan and Ukraine, as well as at corporate level.
We're also getting better at assessing the impact of all these programmes and establishing some useful performance indicators. The aim is to cover around a third of our businesses with a standardised health reporting system by the end of 2009.
We also recognise the important role healthcare can play in recruitment. When we're establishing a new greenfield site we often make a commitment to provide or facilitate healthcare facilities for our own workers and their families, as well as people in the surrounding neighbourhood.