2005 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

LOST TIME INJURY RATE
8 7.8
6
4
2
0
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
6.0
4.3
3.9
INJURY SEVERITY RATE
3.1
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
0.19 0.19
0.14
0.10
0.14
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Suzhou plant (China).
Sustainable Development Report_L’ORÉAL 2005
HEALTH & SAFETY
PERFORMANCE
We are committed to a safe and healthy
workplace at L’Oréal. In this regard, we have
dramatically reduced our lost time injury
rates over the last 5 years by more than 60%
as well as our severity rate by more than 26%.
❯ The lost time injury rate represents the
number of L’Oréal personnel involved in an
accident (absent from work on the day after
the accident) per million hours worked.
This indicator is for L’Oréal employees: temporary
employees are measured separately.
Our target for 2005 was for every factory and
warehouse to be at a lost time injury rate
of 2.5 or less, which corresponds to the
OSHA industry benchmark rate of 0.25 per
200,000 hours worked. While 13 of 42 factories
and 51 of 75 distribution centres had no lost
time injuries in 2005, we unfortunately missed
the target, with 19 of 42 factories and 20 of 75
warehouses over this target rate. For some of
our smaller sites, a single accident in a year
results in exceeding the goal. Nevertheless,
we have restated this goal for 2006, driving to
our ultimate goal of no lost time injuries.
➲ TARGET
2006: lost time injury rate
≤2.5 per million hours worked
Long term target: zero accidents
❯ The injury severity rate expresses the number
of days lost by L’Oréal personnel (as a
result of accidents at work) per 1,000 hours.
Despite reducing the lost time injury rate for
L’Oréal employees by 20.5% and by 36% for
temporary employees, our injury severity rate
index increased by 40%. The increase was
mainly due to a few long term back injuries.
Since we have fewer accidents, just one or two
injuries involving long-term absence from work
can have a very significant effect on this rate.
Our focus is to reduce the number of accidents
while at the same time also reducing the number
of days lost. The vast majority of our accidents
involve minor cuts and sprains, and we
have not had any life-threatening injuries or
the loss of limbs or other very serious injuries.
We have had no employee, temporary employee
or contractor or subcontractor deaths in 2005.
Awards around the world
In 2005, our factory in Clark, New Jersey
won nine New Jersey Governor Safety
Awards for its outstanding safety record.
The site also was recognised by an award
from the US Department of Labor for participation
in “10 Years, Outstanding Worker
Safety and Health Protection” in the OSHA
STAR Programme.
Our SHE team at our Suzhou site in China
won the 2005 Best Safety Production Model
Team of Suzhou City award from the Suzhou
Administration Bureau of Work and Suzhou
Communist Youth League Committee.