Safe Workplaces
The safety of our employees, contractors and the communities in which we operate is an integral part of our business. Our goal is Zero Harm. Decision-making and thinking for safety is directed by 'Our Future State' (PDF 202 KB), which sets the vision for BHP Billiton as an organisation.
We seek to create a mindset and an environment where people believe it is possible to work injury free – regardless of where they are in the world, what role they undertake, or in which business they work.
Our approach to safety is incorporated in our Charter, which states that we have an 'overriding commitment to health, safety, environmental responsibility and sustainable development' and our Sustainable Development Policy, which states that we will:
- Ensure we will not compromise our safety values
- Identify, assess and manage risks to employees, contractors, the environment and our host communities.
These Policy commitments are reflected in our Company-wide safety targets.
Across the organisation we manage safety through our risk-based HSEC Management Standards (PDF 148 KB). Our line managers are accountable for the implementation of these Standards and responsible for ensuring that supporting systems and procedures are in place. We are confident our Standards and associated systems are the right ones, and have directed our efforts towards the effective and consistent implementation of these across the organisation. We call this Operating Discipline.
In seeking to achieve Zero Harm we have learnt that:
- Low injury frequency rates do not mean low fatality rates – we cannot and should not draw any comfort from low injury rates in terms of our capacity to eliminate fatalities.
- Injury reduction programs alone will not prevent fatalities – a complementary, focused effort is required on fatal risk. This is why we have implemented the Fatal Risk Control Protocols.
- Our fatalities often have similar underlying causes.
- High near miss reporting often correlates with declining injuries or fatalities – our ability to take heed of the signals from near miss events is crucial to our efforts in eliminating fatalities.
- Leadership visibility in the field is vital – our current state of safety maturity relies heavily on leadership energy to deliver improved performance.
- Effective contractor management is essential.
- Hazard identification and risk awareness are fundamental to success.
Our safety focus areas are:
- Fatal Risk Control Protocols
- Leadership, Behaviour and Awareness
- Safety Indicators
- Safety Incident Reporting
- Contractor management.
See a summary of our safety performance for the year ended 30 June 2007.
