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Sick leave indices
• We saved R2 million on our Operational
Hygiene surveys thanks to the application
of specific criteria in key areas.
• Our ISO 14001:2007 and OHSAS
18001:2007 Safety, Occupational
Health and Environmental Management
systems were recertified by Dekra
Norisko Industrial South Africa.
• The Compensation Commissioner
granted us a dedicated resource to deal
specifically with Telkom-related cases.
This resulted in a ‘quicker return to work’
by employees who were injured on duty.
• As a result of effective risk management
controls, there were significant
reductions in three reportable incident
categories – working in elevated
positions (17%); lifting and pushing
(30%); and vehicle accidents (16%).
• We established the Telkom Green
Initiative (TGI) project team to enable us
to better manage our environmental
impact.
Absenteeism through illness
There were no significant variations in the
absenteeism through illness and year-todate
sick leave use figures, although there
was a 5.5% improvement in overall sick
leave days used.
We remain concerned about the high level
of sick leave taken (71.7% compared to
70.1% in the previous year) and we will be
making planned changes in sick leave
policy stipulations and management
effectiveness to decrease this business risk
and impact. In terms of productivity and
direct/indirect cost factors, the data
indicates that 791 employees are off sick
each working day. While this is an
improvement of 2.6% on the previous year,
it is still unacceptable and a significant
improvement is necessary. Our new target
is to reduce the sick leave per day to
600 employees in 2010/2011.
Physical wellness
An industrial theatre show, ‘How Do I Eat
This Elephant’ was a key driver in the roll-
Telkom Annual Report 2009 73
Sick leave measure 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 % variance
SAR (%)
Defined as a total number of sick days as % of total
available man-days
2.24 2.51 2.52 (0.4)
ASR (days)
Defined as the average number of days used per sick leave
incident
2.45 2.48 2.53 2.0
AFT (incidents)
The average number of sick leave incidents per sick leave user
3.38 3.59 3.30 (8.1)
SUR (%) Monthly average
Number of sick leave users per month as % of total number of
employee population
15.7 17.3 17.3 0
SUR (%) Year-to-date
Number of sick leave users progressively utilising sick leave as
% of total number of employee population (all sick leave users
are only calculated once)
67.2 70.1 71.7 2.3
Total number of man-days/shifts lost due to sick leave
implying the progressive and accumulative total of sick leave
days over 12-month period
176,795 194,364 183,679 (5.5)
out of our Thuso Wellness days which
highlighted a step-by-step approach to
improve employee wellbeing through
lifestyle changes. Our challenge remains to
reconstruct the “Terrible Triangle” of high
stress levels, poor chronic disease profile
and bad lifestyle habits.
• Eye screening
2,113 employees were screened for vision
impairment and 194 were identified for
further treatment intervention.
• Individual health risk assessments
(chronic profile)
2,903 employees at selected sites in the
Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape
and Gauteng were screened for
hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes and
body mass.
# Hypertension profile: While there was a
decrease in the normal range from 63% to
46%, this remains a major risk area as
more than 50% of those tested had some
abnormality in their blood pressure. The
high systolic range (heart subtraction)
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