Ensuring safety and health
Maintaining a first-class safety culture is key to our business and we continue to make good progress.
Safety
In recent years, the Group has made consistent progress in reducing accidents. In 2008, its Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) was reduced by 5%, the sixth consecutive year of improvement and stood at 0.20 reportable accidents per 100,000 man-hours worked. This has been achieved despite very significant increases in numbers employed. The Group’s safety statistics are subject to independent external audit. Performance is benchmarked against industry norms in the UK, Germany, US and Hong Kong. The Group’s performance compares favourably with these external benchmarks.
Regrettably, there were eight fatalities during the year (18 in 2007). Five of the fatalities were in joint venture business operations in South-East Asia and the Gulf, with one each in Australia, Chile and the UK. Very significant effort is made in improving safety management standards throughout the Group to ensure that we reach high standards in all our businesses across the world.
All fatalities and serious incidents are fully investigated and reviewed at senior management level. Root cause analyses are captured and logged to enable detection of system causes, and for appropriate programmes to be developed in response.
During National Road Safety Week, Balfour Beatty Plant and Fleet Services launched an award-winning driving simulator designed to reduce the risk of accidents and improve fuel efficiency. This is part of the Group’s strong commitment to improving road safety.
Zero Harm
During 2008, the Group initiated a major programme to promote its aim to have zero fatalities, zero permanent disabling injuries, zero injuries to the public and to be accident free overall by 2012, while an accident frequency rate below 0.1 is achieved.
Entitled “Zero Harm,” this programme is led by a Group managing director. It is intended to challenge the industry’s assumptions about risk and extends to all parts of the Balfour Beatty Group, partners, subsidiaries and sub-contractors, working anywhere in the world.
Health
The rigorous standards which the Group applies to safety management are increasingly now being applied to occupational health. Occupational ill-health is often the result of prolonged exposure to substance, condition, process or activity and is not, therefore, easily measured in the short term.
The Group’s approach is to identify the potential causes of ill-health and develop specific policies and programmes for each one. Active programmes exist for hand-arm vibration syndrome, disorders arising from manual handling, alcohol and drug abuse and substances hazardous to health. An enhanced occupational health (OH) strategy is under development, with our OH partners, and will be taken forward in 2009. Stress management arrangements have also been enhanced.
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