2005-2006 Financial Statements and Management Report

40
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY HAS
IMPROVED SIGNIFICANTLY IN
THE PAST FEW YEARS.
Age structure of the German workforce Share of employees by age group on Sept. 30, 2006 in %
up to 30 16
31-40 25
41-50 33
The average age of employees in Germany at the end of the fiscal year was 41.7 years. We have a
balanced age structure in the Group, with 41% of employees under the age of 40. Details are provided
on the above chart.
The accident frequency rate continues to show a clear decline at the German subsidiaries. In fiscal
2005/2006 the number of reportable accidents decreased by around 10% to 11.4 accidents per
1 million hours worked. This means that over the past five years the accident rate has fallen by 33%,
with 17.1 accidents per 1 million hours worked having been reported in fiscal 2001/2002. We expect
a similarly encouraging reduction at our operations outside Germany, because our health and safety
measures are incorporated in a cross-segment and cross-country reporting system.
Nevertheless, every accident is one accident too many. Health and safety at work play a key role in
the success of the Company and are extremely important for the quality of life of our employees. To
further enhance health and safety, we launched a Groupwide initiative in 2005 under the heading
“Company target: Zero accidents”. Key elements of the initiative are the establishment of an improved
health and safety organization, new health and safety guidelines and a broad-based management training
scheme.
Personnel expense increased by 4% to €9.3 billion in the reporting year. The chart below shows how
personnel expense has developed over the past five years.
Personnel expense in million €
2001/2002
2002/2003
2003/2004
2004/2005*
2005/2006*
* excluding expected return on plan assets and interest cost of pension and healthcare which are recognized as part of interest income/expense
BASIC AND ADVANCED TRAINING CREATES PERSPECTIVES FOR THE FUTURE
over 50 26
9,736
9,437
9,465
8,975
9,305
For years we have provided training for young people beyond our own needs. We see this as part of
our responsibility to society. In these times of high youth unemployment it is particularly important to
offer young people high-quality training and thus improve their prospects on the labor market.
At September 30, 2006 a total of 4,139 young people were learning one of over 60 occupations
offered by ThyssenKrupp in Germany. The Group offers the full range of industrial apprenticeships,