Health and Safety
Introduction
Good health and safety practices are integral both to employee welfare and to the success of the Group. We are continually reviewing our procedures and our training in order to develop and adopt methods of working which reduce the likelihood of accidents occurring.
Both divisions operate in a time critical environment: newspaper deliveries work to a tight schedule, with any delay losing sales for ourselves and our customers. Ground handling operations focus on aircraft, where any slip can delay departure or damage a customer’s aircraft. Reports on health and safety performance are the first operating item at all meetings of the Group Board and at Divisional Operating Board meetings. They include injury statistics and trends as well as lessons learned, training performance, contacts with regulators and legislative changes. The Group’s health and safety policy statement, which is published on our website, focuses on establishing a suitable environment, providing proper training, and communication and consultation with employees.
Each division has a specialist health and safety manager, who is supported by local management.
Menzies Aviation
The division has a comprehensive safety management programme called MORSE (Menzies Operating Responsibly Safely and Effectively), which focuses on:
Personal Injury
Aircraft Damages
Damage to Equipment
Emergency Response
Security Awareness
Avoiding the Cost of Carelessness
The MORSE safety management system and network safety team provides a dedicated resource within each region to support the field organisation and ensure we maintain a strong safety compliance focus. The network team works together to set policy, agree standard operational procedures and communicate regular safety awareness information to the field organisation. With operations in over 100 airports worldwide, our priority has been to continue standardising safety processes. One key feature of MORSE is that it incorporates an intranet-based network reporting and investigation system for the recording of all incidents, including near misses, to UK standards with follow-up action taken so that lessons are learned and shared. Additionally, an Incident Review Board chaired by the Divisions Managing Director meets quarterly to review major (category A) incidents, shifting the emphasis to prevention rather than cure. MORSE has been rolled out to the new businesses we acquired during 2007 and is now part of standard operating procedures across our global network.
Menzies Distribution
The most common types of injuries in this business are those sustained from manual handling, slips and trips, and moving objects. Menzies Distribution also uses the MORSE programme, and the division is now moving into the second year of its three year safety strategy. The year saw the divisional directors attend a safety briefing which was designed to bring them up to date with the changes in Health & Safety legislation and also to integrate safety into the business risk management plan. 86 managers from across the division have undertaken various levels of Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (“IOSH”) approved Risk Management training, aimed at increasing awareness of the need to assess risk, and equipping staff with understanding that allows them to be part of the risk management process.
Innovative use of the intranet has made available to all managers specialist Ergonomic and Manual handling assessments as well as new, more detailed, Generic assessments.
The division continued to improve its vehicle movement practices, separating workplace vehicle movements from people movements, and has significantly reduced the opportunity for accidents. Our practices were highly commended in 2005 by the Freight Transport Association and the Health & Safety Executive, and this has lead to the HSE publishing a case study on their web site which highlights Menzies Distribution’s safe systems of work as the blueprint for good working practices. Our ‘pack-by-light’ newspaper allocation system has enabled standardisation of pack sizes, reducing our exposure to lifting injuries.
In terms of motor and vehicle related incidents, Distribution continually keeps its fleet under review to ensure that the most appropriate vehicles are used for driving/training purposes, loading/unloading and accessing routes for making deliveries. Consideration is also given to environmental impact when choosing fleet suppliers. All staff receive health and safety training relevant to the tasks they perform. CD based training materials are also available, including our driver training programme which covers safety as well as advanced driving skills to maximise fuel savings.
Injury and Incident Reporting
Both divisions utilise key performance measures to monitor trends and to improve our performance in this area. However, our two divisions operate in very different sectors, so comparing injury or incident statistics between them or overall figures against figures published by comparator companies would be meaningless.
In 2007, Menzies Aviation had 55 (2006: 29) injuries reportable under UK RIDDOR with an equivalent rate per 100 FTE employees of 1.7 (2006: 1.2). This compares to a rate of 1.8 in the HSE’s transport sector. Menzies Distribution had 42 (2006: 62) incidents during the year that resulted in injuries reportable under UK RIDDOR, which is equivalent to an injury rate per 100 FTE employees of 1.16 – again below the HSE’s transport sector figure of 1.8. The total figure includes businesses acquired during the year.
In respect of Menzies Aviation’s overseas operations, there is no comparable UK RIDDOR, as each country where it operates has different reporting requirements. However, under the MORSE incident reporting system, all injuries are reported under different categories depending on seriousness, where category A would be for the most serious incidents. Category A level is not the same as UK RIDDOR, but it includes major/serious incidents involving fatality, serious harm, dangerous occurrence or aircraft damage, including significant misses.
To provide some context, there were 108 category A incidents altogether reported during 2007 (2006: 76), including, regrettably, one fatality following a serious accident. Of the 108 incidents, 60 involved aircraft damage and 48 involved personal injury. This total of 108 includes injuries reported under UK RIDDOR that were serious enough to be classed under MORSE as being category A incidents. Another significant figure that we monitor is the number of incidents involving aircraft damage per 1,000 turns handled, which is an industry recognised measure. In 2007, our incident rate per 1,000 aircraft turns for category A aircraft damage was 0.10 (2006: 0.10) which compares against an IATA published benchmark figure of 0.67 and IAHA’s figure for 2007 of 0.16 per 1,000 turns.