Occupational health and safety

Fatalities

In terms of safety, Omnia’s view is that even one injury is an injury too many. Regrettably, two fatal injuries occurred during the period under review. One of the incidents related to a worker who died of malaria at one of BME’s international sites; the other to a worker who died of a heart attack while transporting product at one of BME’s local sites.

Recordable case rate (RCR)

Recordable cases are defined as work-related fatalities and those work-related injuries which result in losses of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, transfer to another job, or require medical treatment beyond first aid. Thus all fatality cases, lost workday cases and work-related injuries as detailed above are recordable cases.

The recordable case rate increased from 1,9 to 2,3 and remains a concern, despite various initiatives that have been implemented to improve employees’ safety awareness. We have initiated a special project which will look at the Group-wide implementation of a safety culture, a near-miss reporting drive, awareness through safety campaigns and greater application of the national standards.