Health and safety remains a key challenge for ABB, with about 117,000 employees working in diverse circumstances in around 100 countries, along with thousands of contractors.
Ensuring the safety and health of our people is a core priority for the Group, supported by behavioral and leadership training programs and further development of systems and standards throughout our operations.
Nonetheless, five employees and contractors lost their lives while working for ABB during 2010. Three of them died in incidents at project or customer sites, and two in road traffic incidents. More than 35 people were seriously injured during the year.
ABB has a target of zero incidents and injuries, and all such incidents are unacceptable.
During 2010, ABB implemented an occupational health and safety (OHS) strategic program “Reinvigorating Safety.” Building on the existing requirement for formal country-level OHS strategic plans, a standard framework was established for 2010, including mandatory objectives to be accomplished by year-end.
One of the key focus areas for 2010 was OHS leadership. A new program was launched to involve country managers and local business unit and division managers to highlight safety leadership as a management priority. A training program focused on behavior was also launched in 2010. The “RU Safe” program aims to improve awareness of the potential for human error and of behavioral safety at every level.
Internal communication campaigns were launched to raise awareness on key topics such as electrical safety and road safety.
In addition, focused OHS programs to address specific areas of risk were successfully run in a number of ABB businesses. For example, health and safety audits were held as part of the “Energizing Safety” program for business unit (BU) Substations. Specific OHS instructions were implemented for BU Transformers, and the medium- and high-voltage businesses reviewed the risks for their activities. Power Product division’s service team also commenced a focused OHS improvement program, addressing key service risks.
The Process Automation division took actions too: An expert team started to develop OHS instructions for specific global risks and tailored the group audit protocols to monitor performance. The divisions also worked with OHS experts to integrate health and safety considerations in the risk review process for acquisitions and project reviews.
In addition, the professional development program continued, with the second cohort of senior OHS advisors attending the ABB International Graduate Diploma, and running the first-ever International Construction Certificate course accredited by the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health.
At Group level, we also offered incident investigation training sessions.
For 2011, the Group will continue to strive to improve safety leadership and behavioral safety. Work will continue to consolidate the improvements from the Power Systems, Process Automation, and Power Products divisions’ focused initiatives, and migrate the lessons learned to other divisions and BUs. There will be a renewed focus on occupational health and occupational hygiene.
Occupational health and safety performance: GRI indicators
LA6 Percentage of total workforce represented in health and safety committees
Health and safety consultation is an integral part of ABB’s commitment to introduce into all businesses occupational health and safety management systems based on OHSAS 18001 and the International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines. The form of health and safety consultation with employees varies according to local requirements, and includes health and safety committees and employee forums.
At Group level, ABB has a standing Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) committee chaired by an Executive Committee member whose mandate covers all employees.
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LA7 Injuries, lost days, diseases and fatalities | |||||
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2010 |
2009 |
2008 | ||
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Employee work-related fatalities |
1 |
1 |
*3 | ||
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Incident rate |
0.01 |
0.01 |
*0.03 | ||
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Employee work-related serious injuries |
15 |
27 |
*37 | ||
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Incident rate |
0.13 |
0.23 |
*0.32 | ||
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Employee business travel fatalities |
2 |
1 |
2 | ||
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Incident rate |
0.02 |
0.01 |
0.02 | ||
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Employee business travel serious injuries |
5 |
0 |
3 | ||
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Incident rate |
0.04 |
0 |
0.03 | ||
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Contractor work-related fatalities |
2 |
3 |
4 | ||
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Contractor work-related serious injuries |
16 |
11 |
16 | ||
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Contractor business travel fatalities |
0 |
0 |
1 | ||
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Members of the public fatalities |
0 |
0 |
1 | ||
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Employee lost days due to industrial incidents |
8,362 |
7,633 |
16,877 | ||
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Employee occupational health diseases |
13 |
47 |
102 | ||
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Employee total recordable incident rate |
13.48 |
14.32 |
18.93 | ||
LA8 Programs in place regarding serious diseases
In four countries (Brazil, Mexico, Philippines and South Africa) ABB has programs in place to address HIV/AIDS.
At Group level, ABB has a program in place to deal with pandemic diseases, which has involved the development of pandemic plans and the appointment of pandemic coordinators for all countries. The pandemic plans are an element of a country’s overall crisis response plans. ABB issued an online pandemic newsletter in 2010, which includes advice, hygiene recommendations and a description of symptoms of A/H1N1. The key reference point being used by ABB is the World Health Organization.
LA9 Health and safety topics covered in formal agreements with trade unions
This information is not recorded by the Group, but local legislation requires formal agreements in some countries such as Germany and South Africa. Group health and safety performance is reported annually by the head of Group Function Sustainability Affairs at a meeting with the European Works Council.