Health & Safety

Occupational Health and Safety are to Lafarge fundamental values and key priorities in every activity. Since 2002, the Group has achieved a significant reduction in both the frequency and the gravity of work-related accidents. These improvements are due in part to the Group's Health and Safety management system, which defines the minimum safety levels required for all Lafarge sites.

To reach its target of zero fatal accidents and keep lost time injuries to a minimum, Lafarge:

• informs its employees and subcontractors about the risks related to their activities and provides appropriate training,
• supervises the systematic application of safety standards,
• implements procedures for reporting incidents and undertakes regular audits,
• identifies and communicates best practices and drives their adoption across all worksites.

In Greece we implement the Lafarge Group Health and Safety policy, which tolerates zero accidents. In applying this policy, we have taken measures relating to the necessary personal protective equipment, infrastructure works for a safe workplace, implementation of standards and procedures for every work performed as well as training and behavioral programs fostering and establishing a shared safety culture within the organization. Particular attention is given to training programs on safety, addressed not only to employees but also to the company's partners and subcontractors.

Το date our key measures of safety performance indicate good progress. In 2011 there were no fatalities and the frequency and severity of injuries were both lower than past years. There was only one employee lost time injury and related frequency rate was 0.4. Severity rate was extremely low (0.02), indicating that the accident have had a limited health effect on the injured employee.

We continue to focus on areas where improvement is required: creating the right safety culture, identifying and reducing risks and extending our safety procedures to embrace those that work with us.

As of June 2008 Lafarge Group organizes on an international level Safety Month. Safety Month aims at raising employees' awareness on Health & Safety issues, highlighting safety priorities in every facility, through productive dialogue, exchange of views and related activities. Heracles Group participates strongly with a series of activities, directed primarily to the employees of the company. However depending on the nature and type of the facility, there may be also participating families of the employees, associates and stakeholders.

Health & Safety, as an absolute priority is not limited to the employees but equally applies to the company's partners and subcontractors. Especially for road transportation, the company makes efforts to ensure safer behavioral practices among its transporters and gives particular attention to training programs that promote safe and defensive driving.

In Heracles, for the optimization of our fleet management, advanced GPS are utilized, promoting road safety and reducing the environmental footprint, saving energy. Real-time monitoring of vehicles has enabled improvements in areas such as speed limit violations and unsafe driving behaviours and practices. Specifically, in 2009 the use of GPS systems has led to a year with no lost time injuries and no medical injuries. As a result of the initiative the number of speed violation incidents fell from 14,000 in January down to 20 in December, a decrease of 99.85%. In 2010, there were no lost time injuries and no medical injuries and the number of speed violation almost diminished.

The fleet management system used is of great importance. A sophisticated program (Trucks Control System, ΤCS), receiving real-time information from GPS systems already installed in the vehicles of the company's fleet, seeks to optimize combined cargo transports. Thanks to this system, we can better organise routes of transportation means.

An annual health plan is in place. It includes improvement actions related to the regular workplace exposure monitoring and medical follow up of employees, with special examinations for high risk tasks, improvement of yearly training of First Aid Teams and improvement of the communication of the network of Occupational Doctors of our sites in Greece.