Employee safety is an absolute priority for NWR. That is why the Company continues to work at improving safety standards and reducing the risk of occupational injury at its subsidiaries OKD and OKK Koksovny. Key safety indicators for 2010 illustrate a positive trend, demonstrating the merit of measures and initiatives designed to put the Company on the right path where safety is concerned.
The number of reportable injuries in NWR mines continues to decline
The number of reportable injuries at NWR subsidiary OKD decreased last year by 22 per cent from 346 recorded in 2009 to 271. The LTIFR indicator (Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate) fell from 11.29 recorded in 2009 to 8.61 last year, exceeding the target set for 2010. This data includes contractors as well as employees.
The LTIFR is an internationally used injury frequency indicator that isused to measure developments in occupational safety. In simple words, it can be explained as the number of injuries per one million hours worked that result in an absence from work that lasts at least three working days.
All NWR mines and coking plants have implemented very specific safety regulations, processes and monitoring systems. Employees are prompted to maintain constant awareness of possible risks and of their responsibility for their own safety and that of their colleagues.
Company management, the trade unions and the relevant governmental authorities treat every accident with the utmost seriousness and conduct thorough investigations. They submit any resulting recommendations to the Health, Safety and Environmental Committee (HSEC), which then proposes additional risk elimination measures. Since its inception in 2007, the Committee has overseen occupational health and safety issues and has become one of the pillars of corporate governance within NWR.
NWR is aware that employee motivation is a key factor in increasing employee safety. Responsibility for safety rests on the shoulders of each individual employee. With these points in mind, the company announced a motivational competition in 2010 whereby every employee had the chance to win a Škoda Fabia car in a lottery based on lack of injury. Moreover, each mine held its own prize draws in which people could win holidays worth CZK 50,000. More than 15,000 OKD and contract employees took part in these competitions.
NWR has also announced the “Safe Workplace” motivation programme for its mines. This aims to maintain order at the workplace, rectify insufficiencies and eliminate risks. Teams involved in mining operations are regularly evaluated (at least six times per quarter). Checks are made on the orderliness of workplaces and access routes, and on the management of mine work, ventilation and the maintenance of machinery and electrical equipment. The best excavation team was awarded CZK 50,000, the best preparation team CZK 20,000 (with CZK 15,000 and CZK 10,000 awarded to the second and third-placed teams, respectively), and the best equipping and disposal team CZK 30,000.
SAFETY 2010
Under its SAFETY 2010 programme NWR invested more than half a billion Czech crowns in the acquisition of the most up-to-date work gear and protective equipment for its employees. Deliveries of the new equipment commenced in 2008 and the equipping of employees was completed in 2010. The new clothing and equipment have contributed to increased safety underground as well as an improvement in the working environment. The distributed gear is first class, and is used in the most developed mines worldwide.
“To follow up on our exceptional investment, we must continue to monitor potential risks in order to eliminate them with ever more effective safety and hygiene measures,” says OKD Chief Operating Officer
Leo Bayer.