Health, safety & well-being

Our approach

The health and safety of our workforce remains a priority. We regard their health and safety as an essential element of a successful and sustainable business and are committed to providing a safe workplace. We aim to improve continuously the health, safety and well-being of everyone working for or on behalf of Unilever.

Our principal measure of progress is the Total Recordable Frequency Rate, which counts all workplace accidents except those requiring only simple first aid treatment.

Enhancing the health & safety of our employees

We apply the same high standards at all of our offices and factories across the world. Our goal is the total elimination of all employee and contractor fatalities with continuous improvements in our overall health and safety performance. Our internal global health and safety standards are based on the international standard OHSAS 18001.

Our performance in 2009

We aim not only to continue at our current level of performance but also to eliminate all incidences of employee and contractor fatalities. A key measure of our progress is the Total Recordable Frequency Rate (TRFR).

In 2009, our TRFR decreased to 1.91 accidents per 1 000 000 (one million) hours worked, down 9% on 2008. The chart below shows our preferred accident rate indicator for reporting – Total Recordable Frequency Rate (TRFR) – over the period 2003-2009. While we no longer use Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) for reporting purposes, an earlier trend is presented here for comparison.

In 2010, our TRFR decreased to 1.63 accidents per 1 million hours worked, a drop of 14.7% compared with the 2009 figure of 1.91.

Total Recordable Frequency Rate (TRFR) is one of two occupational safety and eight environmental performance indicators which have been independently assured by Deloitte LLP.

Some of our sites are achieving zero recordable injuries on an ongoing basis. For example, at our factory in Auerbach, Germany, our workforce of 215 employees produced 20 000 tonnes of food products a year without experiencing a single recordable injury between 2006 and mid-2009.

Fatal accidents (1998-2010)

Regrettably, in 2010, two employees and one contractor lost their lives while working for Unilever. The lessons learned from these deaths were communicated across our business.

Fatal accidents is one of two occupational safety and eight environmental performance indicators which have been independently assured by Deloitte LLP.

In addition to the recordable fatality data in the above chart, Unilever requires its organisations to report fatal accidents involving members of the public where these fatal accidents may be deemed associated with our operations, and those which occur at third-party contract manufacturers producing goods and services for Unilever. In common with the other companies in our industrial sector, these incidents are only reportable internally. This reporting practice helps us to identify ways in which such accidents might be prevented in the future. We also benchmark ourselves against other companies in our sector and in wider industry, and work collaboratively to share best safety practice.

The definitions and basis of reporting of these occupational safety performance indicators are described in our Basis of reporting document.

Behavioural-based safety

All our regions have adopted a behavioural-based approach to health and safety. This approach recognises that best practice guidelines and policies are not enough to achieve a safe working environment. It is how well people adhere to them which makes the difference.

The example set by leadership is crucial in achieving adherence. We make safety the responsibility of every manager. Each manager is expected to set a personal example. We are investing in safety leadership training – this will become mandatory from 2011 for senior leaders in our Supply Chain function, with other senior leaders to follow in future years. In addition, safety professionals will provide advice, data and tools for managers. These tools are designed to encourage managers and employees to identify unsafe behaviours and make the consequences of such behaviour more immediate and personal for everyone in the organisation.

Process safety

Process safety concerns the safety of manufacturing processes which can be potentially hazardous. For example, the manufacture of aerosol sprays (because of the flammable nature of the materials used) and the refrigeration in ice cream manufacture (because of the toxicity of the ammonia refrigerant).

Our aim is to prevent any incident which would result in fatalities, serious occupational injuries or a threat to the local community, such as a major fire, explosion or leakage.

Our approach to process safety informs the way we design, develop, construct and operate our manufacturing sites. It also ensures any modifications to sites are managed correctly.

We have developed new indicators for measuring process safety to complement our existing measures for occupational health and safety. These have been used first for processes that are potentially the most hazardous, such as aerosol manufacture, sulphonation, the handling of enzymes in our laundry products manufacture and ammonia refrigeration. They include both lagging indicators (which record incidents and near misses) and leading indicators (which measure the rigour and effectiveness of preventative measures).

Safe travel & transport

Safe travel and transport continue to be a priority for us. Around half our business is in the developing world, where countries often lack a culture of safe driving, basic road safety infrastructure and enforcement. The risk to our employees from personal street attacks is also rising. We are currently reviewing our security arrangements in those countries where this risk is significant and putting additional measures in place.

We have a Safe Driving Teams initiative that is led by a senior manager in the highest risk countries. These teams identify local risk, then develop and implement safe driving standards. The assessments take into account not only the specific circumstances in each country, but also the risks associated with certain routes. Drivers are provided with training based on this risk assessment. We have banned the making of calls using mobile phones while driving to improve road safety.

We also require all our professional drivers worldwide to have regular medical check-ups to ensure their fitness to drive. Each Unilever organisation ensures that their providers of outsourced driving services provide safe and reliable vehicles and qualified drivers.

Where accidents do occur, we are keen that any lessons are learned swiftly and the findings shared throughout the company to prevent recurrence.