Hydro Annual Report 2011b

Cooperating for safety at Slovalco
The Slovalco aluminium plant in Slovakia is 55-percent owned
by Hydro. The company has an extensive management system
to register and follow up all kinds of incidents and emissions. All
managers, supervisors and union representatives are committed to
perform safety dialogues. The system is Slovalco’s variety of Hydro’s
Walk, Observe, Communicate tool and has been used since 2004.
In 2011, the 480 employees in Slovalco performed in total 3,756
such dialogs, which are recorded in the management system. The
company registered one restricted work case among its employees
in 2011 and two lost-time injuries among contractor employees.
Off-the-job injuries are also measured and recorded, analyzed and
discussed with management and union representatives.
collectively negotiated wages in Norway. Salary conditions in
the Norwegian business are reviewed on a regular basis. No
significant gender-related differences were found in 2011. If
significant differences are found at any level, we have a tradition
for closing the gaps within short time.
Executive variable compensation takes into consideration performance
on individual as well as corporate KPIs and includes nonfinancial
indicators. HSE, organization development and social
responsibility are part of the bonus evaluation for the President and
CEO and other members of the corporate management board. See
Note 10 for further information on executive compensation.
Health and work environment
Hydro shall be a leading company in the area of health and
work environment. Our business-planning process is used to
ensure continuous improvement throughout the organization,
and follow-up is reported on a quarterly basis.
We work continuously to avoid new occupational illnesses. In
2011, we developed common definitions for reporting both
potential and verified cases. The implementation started early
in 2012. We track development through a corporate reporting
tool. The occupational-illness rate in 2011 was 0.6 cases per
million hours worked, down from 1.2 in 2010. Most of the
reported cases were related to noise. We expect an increase in
2012 following the new definition and improved reporting.
Come safely home!
Putting safety gear on employees’ kids, photographing them and
interviewing them about why safety is important, has become
a success story in Hydro. The campaign started with posters at
Hydro’s extrusion plant in Argentina, moved on to Acro in Brazil and
has since been adopted by Hydro plants on different continents.
The children are unanimous: Their mothers and fathers should come
safely home!
vIABIlItY perForMAnCe
Organization and work environment
Important award for a small site
Hydro’s building systems brand Wicona received the German
Occupational Safety and Health Award 2011 for its storage and
logistics site in Gerstungen. A jury of experts from industry,
politics, associations, science and society judged the products and
process solutions of more than 200 applicants. The contributions
were evaluated by the jury using criteria like efficiency and costeffectiveness,
innovation, implementation and transferability in the
working life. The award was received for the category “Process
Solutions.” Clearly defined responsibilities, considerate and
friendly feedback toward colleagues, and defined processes for
emergencies are the ground rules at the site.
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Guidelines for assessing work-environment risks are used by the
business areas to help map and evaluate Hydro’s work environment.
Almost all units have performed such assessments. An
exception is our new Bauxite & Alumina business area, which will
start implementation in 2012. To ensure focus on the physical
and chemical work environment and encourage further improvements,
we have established a performance indicator linked to risk
assessment in the work environment. It is a proactive indicator,
describing the potential for possible future damage to health. The
indicator has been implemented at most of our sites. Local targets
for 2012 have been based on identified risk-reducing measures,
and is followed up through a corporate reporting tool. We are
working on further implementation, including evaluation of
introduction of the indicator in Bauxite & Alumina.
Hydro Monitor (see page 63) is another tool we use to track
the organizational work environment, and the results are
implemented in local action plans.
Through our new activities in Brazil, we now have significant
activities in areas where some tropical diseases are present.
Existing programs will be evaluated, and necessary precautions
and relevant training identified. Malaria is only present to a
limited degree in our consolidated operations. Minorityowned
MRN has a program to limit malaria both within its
premises and in the neighboring communities. This includes
information given to employees, their families and riverside
What’s wrong with this image?
It is important to involve employees in making them aware of the
risks that surround them every day at work. Hydro’s extrusion site
St. Oliva in Spain sends out a picture with each payroll showing
unsafe behavior, and the participant is asked to identify all unsafe
conditions. Each month that passes, the task becomes more
challenging. The plant wanted to see how much people had learned
and absorbed about safe behavior in the workplace. With the
monthly image, they know where they are and what they can expect
from each employee. The task is very popular with 95 percent
participation.