Downer safety performance (excluding Spotless and Hawkins)
* In July 2019, there was a fatality in our Otraco business in Chile.
Additional safety metrics
The additional safety metrics of severity rate (days lost per million hours) and occupational disease rate have been calculated by gender and region for our Australian and New Zealand employees, who comprise 99 per cent of our workforce (excluding Spotless).
The TRIFR and severity rate is higher for our male employees in New Zealand than in Australia. The TRIFR and severity rate for our female employees is considerably lower than that of their male counterparts in both Australia and New Zealand, consistent with the type of work more typically performed by our female workers. The occupational disease rate is higher for males in both Australia and New Zealand. This is reflective of the different types of work performed
in the two countries. The principal cause of occupational diseases that resulted in medical treatment or lost days (total recordable injuries) were sprains and musculoskeletal disorders. This is consistent with trends published for Australian workplaces and is due to the type of physical work often undertaken in engineering, construction and mining, such as manual handling, twisting, bending, repetitive work and working with vibrating machinery. We are continuing to implement initiatives that are aimed at reducing the incidence and severity of these types of injuries.
