Occupational safety and health management

The demographic evolution of society, profound changes in the work environment and increasing competition for a good workforce require sustainable and forward-looking concepts for occupational safety as well as viable health management. The German METRO companies implemented a reporting system in order to identify areas with high accident rates or especially vulnerable employee groups, to evaluate causes of accidents and to define targeted countermeasures. The reporting system covered 98% of employees of German METRO group companies in financial year 2017/18. The companies mentioned above have been able to reduce the number of accidents compared to the equivalent period in financial year 2016/17. This reporting system is now to be implemented group-wide.

In financial year 2017/18, the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) was 41.8 (2016/17: 45.0). This system records the number of accidents that cause a downtime of at least one day (excluding the day of the accident) per 1 million working hours. Deaths and long-term incapacity or disability are also included, but commuting accidents are not.

In order to increase awareness among our employees that occupational safety is also the responsibility of each individual employee, we conduct numerous programmes and events in our sales lines and service companies on topics like nutrition, sports, medical screening and mental health. Furthermore, in our METRO Wholesale national subsidiaries, the employees responsible for occupational safety and health management are increasingly collaborating in an international network to discuss and improve occupational health and safety measures and to achieve positive results for employees in a timely manner.