CHALLENGING SAFETY INDEX

All our Business Units report and register unsafe conditions, hazards, near misses, minor incidents and lost time accidents. In order to measure the extent to which our policies lead to safer working, we register the frequency rate in our Safety Index: the number of accidents in the past 12 months per 1 million production hours.

The Safety Index target for 2021 is 10 or lower (2020: 12). The total of 19 accidents with lost time in 2021, resulted for ROTO in a 2021 Safety Index of 15 (2020: 17). Although the Safety Index is showing a downward trend, reaching a Safety Index of 10 or lower and ultimately 0, remains a major challenge that will require our continued attention.

Safety index

We also measure real absenteeism based on the number of lost time days as a result of accidents, which in 2021 was 353 (2020: 602). This equates to about 1.6 FTEs not working for a full year. In the last quarter of 2021 in particular, the number of lost time days is higher than in previous quarters because of three, more serious injuries.

Fortunately, there are also positives. In March 2021, Rezinal celebrated 1000 consecutive days without lost time accidents, which is a huge achievement, especially in the zinc smelting industry. In October 2021, Rotocoat Kampen celebrated 500 consecutive days without lost time accidents and in December 2021, Staco Poland passed the 100-day mark with no serious accidents. All credit for these successes goes to our Family members who have the ambition to achieve our goal of zero accidents.