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• Injury and illness rates

Injury and illness rates

The main indicator we use to measure health and safety is the lost time injury and illness rate, i.e. work-related injuries and illnesses that result in time off work. Other measures include lost calendar days from injuries and illnesses, and reportable injury and illness without lost time.

Lost time injuries and illnesses
Lost time injuries and illnesses are work-related incidents that are serious enough to result in one or more days away from work.

In 2004 there were 519 lost time injuries and 61 lost time illnesses corresponding to a combined rate of 0.30 per 100,000 hours worked.

At 71 sites in 35 countries, there were no lost time injuries or illnesses during the year. At one site in China, there have been no lost time injuries or illnesses for three years. In addition:

• two sites in Canada and Mexico achieved 5 million hours worked without a lost time injury or illness;
• one site in Puerto Rico achieved 4 million hours worked without a lost time injury or illness;
• three sites in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Singapore achieved 3 million hours worked without a lost time injury or illness;
• three sites in India, Saudi Arabia and the US achieved 2 million hours worked without a lost time injury or illness;
• ten sites in China, India, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, UK, and the US achieved 1 million hours worked without a lost time injury or illness.

See more on injury and illness milestones.

Cases of work related mental ill health are excluded from the overall illness rate. This is because the consistency of reporting such cases is less robust than other occupational illnesses and there are variations in the way these illnesses are defined under local legislation which affects reporting. However, we are working to address these inconsistencies and aim to include these cases at a future date. In 2004, there were 30 cases of work-related mental ill health with lost time, a rate of 0.02 per 100,000 hours worked.

Lost time injury and illness rate
year	injury	illness
2001	0.39	0.04
2002	0.31	0.03
2003	0.28	0.02
2004	0.27	0.03

	2001	2002	2003	2004
01. R&D	0.19	0.23	0.19	0.14
02. Biologicals	2.02	1.60	1.35	1.05
03. Consumer healthcare	0.60	0.42	0.38	0.43
04. New Product and Global supply	0.52	0.27	0.17	0.27
05. Regional Pharma Supply	0.14	0.10	0.14	0.11
06. Primary Supply and Antibiotics	0.59	0.31	0.29	0.41
07. Commercial	0.43	0.36	0.31	0.30
08. Other	1.23	1.03	1.86	0.89

We track the number of cases of work-related injury and illness resulting in time off work. Our target is to reduce work-related lost time injury and illness per 100,000 employees by 15% every year until the end of 2005. During 2004 our injury and illness rate remained almost constant and therefore we did not meet our target. This may be partially explained by improvements in our reporting systems, including training, resulting in more accurate data.

We will redouble our efforts to resume the positive trend established between 2001 and 2003 that led to a 30% reduction in the illness and injury rate.

In 2005 we will need to achieve a 24% improvement to put us back on track to achieve our 2005 target.

Lost calendar days from injuries and illnesses

We also measure the calendar days that employees could not work because of work-related injuries and illnesses. This helps to provide a measure of the severity of injuries and illnesses, although it is not always an accurate reflection eg some illnesses such as hearing loss and sensitisation can result in permanent disability without resulting in lost time.

In 2004, excluding work related mental illness, there were 12,748 lost days due to injury and 1,446 lost days due to illness. There were an additional 1,513 lost days due to work related mental illness. In 2004, approximately 13% of illnesses resulted in permanent disabilities, such as noise induced hearing loss, sensitisation to chemicals and some musculoskeletal illnesses.

Calendar days lost rate
year	injury	illness
2001	8.61	0.07
2002	7.02	1.16
2003	6.14	0.68
2004	6.53	0.74

Reportable injury and illness without lost time

We also measure the number of reportable injuries and illnesses that did not result in time away from work (lost days). These are work-related injuries and illnesses that are more serious than first aid but generally less serious than lost time. In 2004 there were 430 injuries without lost time and 345 illnesses without lost time. There was also an additional 9 cases of mental illness without lost time, a rate of less than one per 100,000 hours worked.

Reportable injury and illness without lost time rate
Year	Injury	Illness
2001	0.564	0.148
2002	0.468	0.166
2003	0.388	0.247
2004	0.220	0.177

	2001	2002	2003	2004
01. R&D	0.61	0.57	0.77	0.46
02. Biologicals	1.67	0.84	1.11	0.26
03. Consumer healthcare	1.06	0.97	1.10	0.56
04. New Product and Global supply	1.02	1.31	1.36	0.54
05. Regional Pharma Supply	0.60	0.76	0.53	0.24
06. Primary Supply and Antibiotics	1.77	1.13	1.14	1.23
07. Commercial	0.27	0.25	0.24	0.23
08. Other	0.76	1.20	0.47	0.10

Contractors working on GSK sites (not directly supervised by GSK employees)

Here we report health and safety data for construction contractors or contract companies (e.g. those providing catering and landscaping services) who work on GSK sites but supervise and direct their own staff. The data for contract workers who are directly supervised by GSK employees are included in the data for GSK employees.

In 2004 there were 83 lost time injuries and illnesses (a rate of 0.40 per 100,000 hours worked). There were also 1,351 calendar days lost (a rate of 2.00 per 100,000 hours worked) and 412 reportable injuries and illnesses without lost time (a rate of 6.55 per 100,000 hours worked). This data is not included in the verification by ERM.

These rates are higher than those for GSK employees. Contract companies are responsible for supervising their own employees and also for providing them with safety training.

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