Occupational health and safety

We want our employees to return home just as healthy as when they leave for work. This is the ambition that drives us to constantly improve occupational safety and health protection within the RWE Group. As we strive for “zero accidents,” we intend to pass an important milestone by 2012: Our aim is to reduce the number of work-related lost time accidents to 3.0 for every million work hours. In fiscal 2008, the accident rate was 5.3, recording a drop for the seventh straight year. This figure includes all accidents occurring at work or on business trips which result in more than one day of missed work. This significant downward trend proves that RWE and its workforce are becoming increasingly safety-conscious. To make even more progress in this area, in early 2008, we launched the groupwide “Sicher voRWEg” (“The Energy to Lead Safely”) initiative. Its objective is to refine occupational safety and health protection practices and spread them throughout the organization. “Sicher voRWEg” kicked off by instructing all managerial staff.

They are responsible for informing their teams of RWE’s uniform occupational safety and health protection philosophy and having it reflected in daily routines. “Sicher voRWEg” also applies without restriction to personnel seconded to RWE by outside companies. For instance, RWE Power introduced a safety ID for all external personnel: All third-party employees setting foot on any of our sites have to provide proof that they are familiar with our safety regulations. Despite all these efforts, twelve employees–including eight external workers–were fatally injured when working on RWE premises in 2008. We mourn those who have died and use the lessons learned from these sad incidents to develop and take further preventive measures.

Prevention is also our primary concern in health management, and we go above and beyond legally required medical care in this regard. We want to enable our employees to behave in a health-conscious manner. With this goal in our sights, we rolled out two campaigns in 2008: to provide protective skin care and to detect intestinal cancer early on. Furthermore, we made managerial staff aware of the need for health-conscious action through a series of seminars entitled “Health as a Managerial Task/Healthy Leadership.” In order to prevent muscle tightness, back pain and bad posture, the ailments most frequently suffered by office workers, we offer our personnel special chiropractic lessons and give them pointers on how to ensure a healthy posture when behind the desk. Programmes such as “In Zukunft rauchfrei” (“A Smoke-Free Future”) and “Prima Klima” (“Great Climate”) against avoidable stress at work also help us show our employees the road to a healthier lifestyle.