Destination ZERO

At Woolworths, we’re committed to protecting the safety, health and welfare of our employees, customers, contractors, visitors and the community. We’re proud of our safety record and believe each individual has an important role to play in maintaining our commitment.

In 2007 we launched Destination ZERO, outlining our goal of zero harm to our people, property and environment. Our vision is for people at all levels of the organisation to actively care about their own safety and the safety of others. We want all of our employees to be passionate about safety and its integration into the way we do business.

Our strategy for integration of safety into our business is guided by the following principles:

• We will make safety personal.
• No task is so urgent and no service so important that we cannot take time to do it safely.
• We will aim to improve the quality of life, now and for future generations.
• We are responsible for:
  • Our own safety and health.
  • The safety and health of our co-workers, customers, contractors and visitors.
  • Our impact on the environment.
  • Recognising and promoting excellence in safety, health and environmental performance.

Safety, health and environment performance

Each year we will set targets to continually lower our safety incident rate while striving towards our destination of ZERO. In 2006, we set ourselves a three year target to reduce Lost Time Injuries (LTI) in the workplace by 20% each year over the next three years.

Safety and health program

At Woolworths our health strategies and initiatives are developed, implemented and maintained in line with our vision, principles, policies, standards and associated legislative requirements. We ensure all of the divisions of Woolworths are supported in leading and managing safety and health throughout Woolworths.

We aim to ensure a safe workplace and shopping experience by ensuring that our facilities are well designed and maintained, and that we have in place the right procedures, training programs, programs to assess and manage safety and health risks.

To monitor performance, we conduct regular safety and health audits, reviews and inspections. A comprehensive assessment of our SH&E management system is completed by accredited internal auditors that are independent of the location being audited.

Safety leadership

Visible and effective safety leadership is important to the success of our safety programs. “Safety the Woolworths Way” is aimed at all levels of the organisation and provides leaders with the tools and processes to improve safety behaviours and to prevent injuries from occurring.

To help spread the safety message across our entire Company, we use a range of communication tools to reinforce safety messages, from our internal video broadcast systems to messages from senior executives.

SH&E Management Information System

We are in the process of implementing an SH&E Management Information System (MIS). The MIS is an easy to use system for capturing OH&S incidents, investigations and hazards at site level, reporting, assisting in prevention of further incidents and reducing the cost of doing business. The MIS will be implemented in 2008 across all of our operations.

Electrical safety upgrade

To reduce electrical hazards throughout the business, we have committed to investing more than $12 million through the installation of Residual Current Devices (RCD). An RCD is a safety device that disconnects a circuit whenever a leakage of 30mA is detected, and is designed to disconnect quickly enough to prevent electric shocks. This initiative goes above and beyond regulatory requirements to safeguard employees in the workplace.

Logistics safety

The majority of our Distribution Centres have now been equipped with weighbridges to improve retail logistics safety. We have also commenced fitting side under-bars to our new fleet of delivery trucks. The side bars prevent cars from sliding underneath the trailer helping to prevent serious injuries or fatalities when a car collides with a truck.

Contractor management

Improving contractor safety management continues to be a key focus area for our business. We have centralised contractor administration and introduced processes to systematically review licensing, insurances, safety audits, induction and the issuing of identification cards to contractors. Launched in March 2007, the initiative aims to improve contractor safety across the retail industry by establishing an independent accreditation process that is accepted by a wider group of companies. Secondary phases will be launched throughout 2008 to ensure all Repair and Maintenance contractors are covered by the end of 2008–09 financial year with the balance of contractor categories phased in accordingly.

Trolley contractors

In an effort to reduce the number and severity of trolley incidents, we are working with trolley collection contractors to improve compliance, knowledge, processes and safety standards to achieve best practice within the industry. We have introduced the following initiatives over the past year:

• Establishing quarterly trolley contractor forums with key vendors.
• Coordinating an annual trolley contractor conference for all head contractors.
• Lobbying relevant industry authorities and government for the development and adoption of a standard code of practice for the industry.
• Conducting on site risk reviews for contractor safety job assessments to meet best practice requirements.
• Reviewing store and carpark design guidelines to eliminate risk at the design stage.

Drive 4 Life

Woolworths continues to support safe driving within Company cars through driver development and awareness workshops known as Drive 4 Life. These workshops are run for Woolworths staff that have access to Company vehicles, with discounted rates offered to family members via in-house promotions.

The four hour in-house sessions include a practical component on reversing and slow speed manoeuvring, along with group facilitation on topics such as driver behaviour, hazard perception, risk taking, road law and vehicle familiarity. Approximately 3,000 drivers have already undertaken the training nationally.

Move 4 Life

Strain and sprain injuries, usually as a result of manual handling activity, continue to be the most common injuries within Woolworths. To reduce both the incidence and severity of these injuries, we commenced the implementation of the Move 4 Life program in 2007. This initiative is improving quality of life for our people, both at work and at home, and the productivity and profitability of our business.

Awards

The 2008 CEO Safety Award was awarded to the Petrol Division in Victoria (Area Group 5) at the Managers Conference. The award recognises excellence in safety leadership and the criteria that the submissions were judged on included: Results, Innovation, Leadership, and Winning the Hearts & Minds of our front line staff. The team was awarded a cheque for $100,000 to put towards any safety initiative. The Logistics Division also received the CEO’s Highly Commended Award for driving significant improvements in their safety culture while achieving a 53% reduction in their LTIFR.

Woolworths also received three external safety awards:

• Lumley Fleet Services presented a Driver Safety Initiative Award for the rollout of the Drive 4 Life program to more than 3,000 employees.
• Individual awards for “Best Individual Contribution to Health and Safety” were won by two Woolworths employees as a result of their safety initiative shown in their respective fields, one in Victoria and one in New South Wales.

Divisional LTIFR results as at 2007–08
LTIFR as at FY08	Per million hours	Per 200,000 hours	% change
Supermarkets	18.42	3.6	–19
Logistics	26.18	5.2	–53
BIG W	12.87	2.5	–19
Dick Smith Electronics	7.68	1.5	+6
Liquor – BWS	15.77	3.1	–41
Liquor – Dan Murphy’s	11.81	2.3	–44
Petrol	8.41	1.6	–46
Progressive (New Zealand)	16.74	3.3	–12
Woolworths Group	17.09	3.4	–23

Other Safety, Health and Environment – Key Performance Indicators FY07 versus FY08
KPI	FY07	FY08
Employee work-related fatalities	ZERO	ZERO
Reduction in LTI frequency rate	20%	23%
Reduction in new claim frequency rate	9%	9%
Reduction in customer claims	9%	9%
Reduction in hours lost for injuries in the last 12 months	10%	7%

Designate Reporting © 2008