Health and safety policy

Our Corporate Health and Safety policy translates the high level commitments reflected in our code of conduct, The Principles for Sustainable Excellence, into principles that can be concretely implemented through our internal procedures and activities.

We manage our health and safety performance using OHSAS 18001, which is widely seen as the most rigorous international standard for occupational health and safety. OHSAS 18001 defines the specifications for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, to enable an organization to control its OH&S risks and improve its performance. In 2001 we set the target to ensure that all 16 of our manufacturing sites are certified to the OHSAS 18001 standard. This target was achieved in 2003 and all of our sites have been fully certified ever since. Four non-manufacturing sites are also certified. .

EHS Steering committees and top management responsibility

The company's h ealth and safety strategy and its implementation are overseen by ST's joint Corporate Environment, Health and Safety Steering Committee. The Corporate Vice President for Total Quality and Corporate Responsibility chairs this committee and reports on performance to the CEO on a quarterly basis.

Each manufacturing site also has a health and safety steering committee, chaired by the Site Manager. Permanent members include the Site Safety Officer, Operation Manager(s), HR Manager, Materials/Purchasing Manager, and Facilities Manager. This Committee is responsible for implementing the Corporate Health and Safety policy. It also addresses any potential need for changes to the site's policy, objectives and programs of the OH&S management system in the light of OH&S management systems, audit results, changing circumstances and the commitment to continuous improvement. Each local health and safety steering committee covers all 100% of ST employees in that manufacturing site. 86% of our employees are covered by these committees – the remaining 14% of employees are in functions and locations unrelated to manufacturing.

Recording and notification of recordable cases (LA5)

Effective performance monitoring requires the recording of work-related injuries and illnesses and the calculation of related indices. We have adopted the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the United States ) model. Indices are appropriate for benchmarking within the microelectronic industry. The OSHA model meets the requirements of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Code of Practice.

Recording and reporting systems

All our occupational injuries and diseases are recorded, classified and investigated and we identify and implement preventive and correctives measures.

All of our health and safety performance data is monitored and managed on a quarterly basis internally and reported annually externally. It covers 89% of our employees. The remaining 11% work in functions and locations unrelated to manufacturing. Our main indicators for monitoring our performance are the recordable cases rate for work-related injuries and illnesses (the number of recordable cases per 100 employees) and the severity rate of work-related injuries and illnesses (the number of work and non-work days lost due to injury/illness per 100 employee days). We also monitor numerous other indicators, some of which we publish. For example, we monitor the breakdown of ‘industrial' (e.g. involving chemicals, mechanical apparatus etc.) and ‘domestic' recordable cases (e.g. fall, slip, struck by or against a door, chair, structure, tree etc.). We also monitor the estimated cost of work-related injuries and illnesses to the company and we benchmark our results with national and industry results from different countries.

We report externally on numerous health and safety indicators in our annual CR Report, which are verified by a third party.

Health and safety objectives

We meet our Corporate Annual Targets (CATs) using the nine criteria of the Business Excellence model of the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management). One of the ‘enablers' of this model is ‘People Management' and one of the ‘results' is ‘People Results'. Health and safety objectives are set within this structured framework so that every division in the company can deploy the appropriate annual objectives relating to health and safety.

Health and safety objectives are also included in our expanded Environment, Health and Safety Decalogue, a set of 10 measurable, time-defined goals.

A proactive approach to health and safety

For a number of years we have taken a proactive approach to health and safety. This involves first identifying a hazard and then anticipating the possible effect. Proactive strategies look forward, anticipate and predict in order to prevent. The hazard is analyzed and identified, risks are assessed, recommendations are proposed and corrective actions and system improvements are implemented. The reporting and management of near-misses is a key aspect of this approach.

A Behavioral Risk Improvement (BRI) program has also been launched to continuously improve the working environment so that it encourages safe behaviors. Elements that are addressed in the process include:

• A review of the critical behaviors that constitute the major percentage of employee injuries or other significant loss areas, as appropriate;
• An identification of safe behaviors;
• Initial management briefings, to educate management on the process elements and their roles;
• Training, implementation and follow-up on the BRI process.

The goal is to raise risk awareness among employees so that they adopt a strong safety behavior leading to accident prevention and the reduction of the number of accidents. This also increases managers' understanding of their Health and Safety responsibility. Employees and unions are involved in this program.

Health and safety training is widely practiced in all manufacturing sites and across the company to employees and managers. Regular communication is also used to maintain awareness at a high level.