NF8 Health and Safety
Management systems
Every non-administrative Sandvik location with more than 25 people is required to have external certification within two years of commencement or acquisition. At the end of 2020, 98 percent of sites in scope were certified. No previous certifications were abandoned compared to last year.
Health and Safety metrics
We utilize a wide range of leading and lagging indicators to measure health and safety performance in every Sandvik location, including Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) and Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR). Both of these indicators show long-term positive trends. In 2020, the LTIFR (LTIs per million hours worked) decreased to 1.4 (1.5), and the TRIFR (total number of recordable injuries per million hours worked) was reduced to 3.2 (3.8). Cuts and pinched hands and fingers were the most common injury types. As the LTIFR gets to lower levels, Sandvik is moving towards a greater focus on TRIFR as its primary safety performance indicator. Regrettably, a tragic incident occurred during the year at one of our Swedish production units, causing two fatalities. The incident investigation is still on-going. This was the first fatality since 2015.
Health and safety |
2019 |
2020 |
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Injury |
Employees |
Non-employees1) |
Total Workforce |
Employees |
Non-employees1) |
Total Workforce |
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Number of fatalities |
– |
– |
– |
2 |
– |
2 |
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Number of LTI |
124 |
9 |
133 |
95 |
6 |
101 |
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LTIFR2) |
1.6 |
0.92 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
0.75 |
1.4 |
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Number of TRI |
296 |
33 |
329 |
215 |
17 |
232 |
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TRIFR2) |
3.9 |
3.4 |
3.8 |
3.3 |
2.1 |
3.2 |
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Exposure hours, hazards and near misses |
|
|
|
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Million exposure hours |
76.1 |
9.8 |
85.9 |
65.5 |
8.0 |
73.5 |
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Hazards reported |
|
|
81,158 |
|
|
56,008 |
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Hazards closed out |
|
|
79,192 |
|
|
53,145 |
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Hazard close out ratio (%) |
|
|
97.6 |
|
|
94.9 |
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Near misses reported |
|
|
6,323 |
|
|
4,144 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
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Work-related illness3) |
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|
|
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Illness |
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Number of fatalities |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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Number of LTIL |
10 |
2 |
12 |
5 |
1 |
6 |
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LTILFR2) |
0.13 |
0.20 |
0.14 |
0.08 |
0.12 |
0.08 |
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Number of TRIL |
17 |
3 |
20 |
18 |
2 |
20 |
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TRILFR2) |
0.24 |
0.31 |
0.23 |
0.27 |
0.25 |
0.27 |
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Occupational well-being
Sandvik has processes in place to record and investigate occupational illnesses to determine the root causes and develop prevention strategies. Repetitive strain injuries and stress-related symptoms were the most commonly reported illnesses.
Hazardous materials
We continually work to replace hazardous materials with less hazardous alternatives in our production or, where replacement is not an option, minimize the use of hazardous materials. We invest in new equipment and improve our processes to reduce employee exposure to hazards such as noise, dust and exposure to gases or other substances. Our products and solutions are designed with improved customer health and safety in focus, for example by reducing their exposure to chemical hazards. Our battery-driven underground mining equipment helps to alleviate the potential health impacts of diesel particulate matter and other engine emissions.
TRIFR by business area
LTIFR by business area
TRIFR and LTIFR
Reporting principles
Health and Safety data is derived from our EHS reporting system in which safety-related indicators are reported on a monthly basis. The key figures compiled are based on information available at the date of the most recent year-end accounts, which may entail that historical figures have been adjusted.
An LTI is an accident resulting in time away from work, an RWI (Restricted Work Injury) is an injury where you can be at work but you can’t perform your ordinary work, and a MTI (Medical Treatment Injury) is when you need some kind of medical treatment but can still perform your normal work. Worked hours is defined as exposure hours, i.e. all hours exposed to risk by employees, contractors and sub-contractors. The exposure hours are collected and entered into the EHS database on a monthly basis. The term used in GRI named as “high-consequence injury/illness” is incorporated in the key figures for Lost Time cases. In the past two years we have had one incident on record meeting the six months absence criteria. Our approach to mitigate these high severity incidents and illnesses is a key part of our management system and is handled within the processes for serious potential incidents, for example in our work with critical control management.
The reported data for occupational illnesses and frequency rates are part of our monthly reporting process. The illness data is not seldom difficult to capture and can in some cases be surrounded by regulatory obligations, for example related to privacy of workers. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that occupational illness might not be detected until some time after an exposure occurs, which may contribute to a risk that the illness is not recognized as work-related. As a consequence, the level of uncertainty is deemed higher for the illness data. Illness is defined as an occurrence of physical or mental harm or disease that develops over time in the course of work and not as the result of a single instantaneous event. Establishing an illness as work-related can be a complicated process and could span over a long period of time.