Health, safety and security
Hydro shall be a leading company in the area of health and work environment. All units shall carry out risk assessments and implement appropriate risk-reducing measures. Our business planning process is used to ensure continuous improvement throughout the organization and follow-up is reported on a monthly basis.
Sick leave was 2.8 percent in 2007, up from 2.6 percent in 2006. The rules for sick-leave registration differ from country to country. Our sick leave in Norway is significantly higher than in Hydro on average, but relatively low compared to the industry average. In Norway, sick leave was 5.2 percent compared to 5.0 percent in the previous year. Men’s sick leave was 4.9 percent, up from 4.5 percent in 2006, while women’s sick leave decreased from 6.8 percent in 2006 to 6.4 percent in 2007.
Our overall safety performance did not improve in 2007. We did not reach our target of a 20 percent improvement in total recordable injuries (TRI), and we had two fatal accidents. In addition, we had one fatal accident in February 2008. Our ambition to improve TRI by 20 percent per year remains unchanged, and we are working on appropriate measures to make this possible. Even though we achieved a 25 percent reduction in the injury rate in 2006, we take the 2007 results as a serious reminder. Enforced commitment with even stronger emphasis on behaviour is necessary to bring the injury rate further down. In a ten-year perspective, we have reduced the number of personal injuries per million hours worked from 19.7 in 1997 to 4.1 in 2007.
For several years we have been working with Det norske Veritas to develop an indicator for technical safety. The T-rate measures the availability of the technical safety barriers that are installed in order to prevent or mitigate major accidents. The indicator has already been implemented at several plants, and the plan is to implement the indicator in all relevant plants and installations by the end of 2008.
It is important for Hydro to safeguard its employees, the environment, the assets of the company and its reputation. An increased presence in areas of risk, and increased threats generally, have led to us intensify our preventive efforts. The leakage of the fourth quarter 2006 results early in 2007 compelled us re-assess our routines and upgrade the security level for handling sensitive information.
