Australia Post Annual Report 2008–09

Corporate responsibility Our people
Occupational health and safety
Our occupational health and safety (OH&S)
program has helped Australia Post to achieve
consistent year-on-year reductions in our lost
time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) throughout
the past decade.
Unfortunately, this year, our LTIFR increased for
the first time since 1997. The number of lost
time injuries per million work hours was 7.1
in 2008–09 (compared with 6.6 last year).
The major factor contributing to this rise
was an increase in the number of incidents
involving our motorcycle posties.
We maintained our focus on injury prevention
and workplace safety through a range of
initiatives, including:
• training motorcyclists in safe riding
behaviour, reinforcing existing safe work
practices, including regular motorcycle
maintenance inspections and undertaking
risk reviews of motorcycle rounds
• introducing a new uniform for our mail
delivery staff that incorporates high levels
of protection from solar UV, high levels
of visibility, as well as thermal comfort
while staff are performing mail delivery
work outdoors
• conducting the Safe Postie Campaign
to raise the public’s awareness about
postie safety through newspaper and
letterbox drop publicity
• introducing a fatigue management plan
for transport drivers, which outlines the
corporation’s approach to controlling
OH&S risks associated with heavy
vehicle driver fatigue
40
Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR)
per million work hours
20
15
10
5
0
1998–99
1999–00
2000–01
2001–02
2002–03
2003–04
2004–05
2005–06
2006–07
2007–08
7.1
2008–09
Australia Post Annual Report 2008–09 | Report of operations
• implementing new Health and Safety
Management Arrangements (HSMAs) that
enable managers to work in consultation
with employees in effectively managing
workplace health and safety hazards
and risks.
We continue to offer a range of health
and wellbeing programs for staff, including a
financial education program, confidential staff
counselling service, Mensline (a telephone
counselling service for men) and Staying
Connected (workshops for fathers who
have limited access to their children). We
also conducted seminars during the year for
managers and supervisors to improve their
awareness of domestic violence and mental
health issues.
Our successful rehabilitation and
return-to-work program continued as well.
Attendance
Staff attendance at Australia Post remained
steady during the year at 94.6 per cent (the
same as last year). We continued our focus
on managing absenteeism by using national
attendance guidelines and focusing on
initiatives that promote workforce flexibility
and staff engagement.
Labour relations
Back in late 2007, the two key unions that
represent our staff – the Communications
Electrical Plumbing Union (CEPU) and the
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) –
withdrew their support for our seventh
enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA7).
In the absence of a new enterprise agreement,
EBA6 continues to apply to our employees,
and it establishes the framework for our
consultations with the CEPU and the CPSU.
Approximately 96 per cent of our staff are
covered by this collective agreement.
Despite the unions’ decision to withdraw their
support for EBA7, Australia Post has continued
to pay the salary increases that were outlined
in the original EBA7 pay offer. Eligible staff,
therefore, received a 4 per cent pay rise in
August 2008. All eligible staff are also due
to receive a $500 performance bonus in
September 2009 as reward for their role
in helping the corporation to exceed its
94 per cent target for on-time letter
delivery during 2008–09.
Staff engagement
A total of 25,587 staff (73.5 per cent of
all our people) voluntarily participated in the
Staff Attitude Survey that we conducted in
February 2009. The survey results showed
significant improvement in staff attitudes
when compared with previous years. In
particular, 70 per cent of staff responded
favourably to the questions related to
employee engagement.
The future
As we seek to improve employee retention
and attendance rates, we will endeavour to
create greater workforce flexibility over the
coming year. We will also renew our focus on
occupational health and safety in an effort to
once again reduce the incidence of lost time
injuries in our workplaces.