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. In order to identify areas with high accident rates or particularly vulnerable groups, to evaluate the causes of accidents and to define targeted countermeasures, METRO has implemented an appropriate reporting system that records employee accidents at 74% of METRO companies worldwide. Due to different definitions and legal requirements in the countries in which METRO is active, we are continuing to work on a central solution that meets local requirements and simultaneously facilitates uniform and comparable data collection throughout the company.
In financial year 2018/19, 94% of the employees in the German METRO companies were recorded via accident reporting. These companies have been able to reduce the number of accidents compared to the equivalent period in financial year 2017/18.
The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) for German METRO companies in financial year 2018/19 was 20 (2017/18: 27.48Prior-year adjustment due to discontinued operations). This system records the number of accidents that cause a downtime of at least 1 day (without the day of the accident) per 1 million working hours. Deaths and long-term incapacity or disability are 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 as well as METRO AG on topics like nutrition, sports, medical screening and mental health. Furthermore, in our 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.