Sustainability Report - Antofagasta PLC

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Antofagasta plc Sustainability Report 2011
Antofagasta Railway Company
Safety performance
Fatalities
Lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR)
All injury frequency rate (AIFR)
Health and safety
Our workers and contractors face health and safety
risks from moving trains and other machinery. We
manage these risks through a Health and Safety
Management System, based on OHS18001. We
encourage a culture of individual responsibility for
safety, whereby employees look after their own health
and safety as well as that of their colleagues.
We deeply regret the death of one Antofagasta Railway
Company worker in 2011 in the city of Calama, who
was hit by a train. We investigated the cause of the
accident and found that proper safety procedures had
not been followed and that the train had not been
properly secured. After the accident, a number of
workers were dismissed for failing to follow safety
procedures. Information to further raise employees’
awareness of health and safety procedures, and to
avoid accidents in future, was circulated through an
intensive internal communications campaign. Posters
were placed in visible spots around the company and
these are replaced regularly with different safety
themes. The recruitment process has been
strengthened and union leaders agreed to the
introduction of financial incentives and penalties to
bolster safety performance from 2012.
The lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) remained
stable in 2011 compared to 2010. We will strive to
reduce this in 2012, although the rate remains well
below our historic average. Of the 20 incidents recorded
last year, strains comprised the most common form of
injury.
2011
1
9.6
28.3
2010
-
9.5
25.9
2009
-
12.0
33.9
Note: the LTIFR and AIFR figures for Antofagasta Railway Company have been restated to
include data from all four of its subsidiaries: FCAB, EPS, TRAIN, FCAB Embarcadores and
FCAB Ingenierios y Servicios. In previous years only FCAB was included.
2008
-
14.1
37.1
In 2011 we introduced several new safety initiatives to
prevent accidents, such as improving the railings on
flatcars used to transport large machinery, changing the
location of brake levers in tank cars to reduce the risk of
injury to train engineers and introducing new safety
standards for handling cargo.
More than 1,000 employees and contractors took our
health and safety induction training programme in 2011.
We ran a series of safety courses on specific activities
including hoisting and driving. We are also introducing
new equipment to protect workers’ hearing.
We updated the health and safety regulations for
contractors. Among other changes, we now require
contractors to carry out their scheduled audits and
monthly meetings with the assistance of one of our risk
prevention officers.
Public safety
Preventing accidents on our tracks is a company
priority. We deeply regret one death on our railway lines
in 2011. A homeless person was run over by a train
after falling asleep on the track. We are concerned
about the incident and are working to raise awareness
among homeless groups about the danger of settling
close to the tracks.
To prevent accidents, the company is focusing its
efforts on:
– Awareness-raising campaigns: In 2011, we ran a
safety information campaign for residents who live
close to the railway, as part of a wider safety
awareness drive that also included public talks and
outreach efforts with community groups in
Antofagasta. We ran a series of public discussions on
topics such as the dangers of leaving rubbish on the
tracks and we distributed printed material to over
2,000 households in an effort to improve safety at
railway crossings. This was a central theme of our
annual children’s drawing contest that attracted more
than 170 students from Antofagasta schools and
more than 11,000 people who voted. We also
distributed information on the street on Railroad
Crossing Awareness Day.