Safety management

Good safety management is vital to our business. It runs through everything we do. So all our employees are accountable for their safety performance, and excellent performance is always recognised, acknowledged, published and promoted. 

In addition, all our leaders are accountable for safety performance, and it is always an important factor when considering their career and promotional opportunities.

How we work towards an injury free workplace

In 1998, we began a journey to make Rio Tinto a safe place in which to work. Since then, our injury rate has fallen by 77 per cent.

The cornerstone of our safety strategy is based around our leadership behaviours, and we insist on a tangible commitment to the well being of all our employees above all other considerations. 

All risks are managed and safe operating parameters for process and equipment are always used and carefully maintained. In addition, we have selected a single root cause analysis methodology to be used in the investigation into all critical and high incidents, and we share our best practice and 'lessons learned' through an online portal. 

In 2000, we introduced a mandatory set of minimum safety standards, the implementation of which we check by a rigorous audit process and  constantly update them in the light of new knowledge and experience. We believe that these standards have been a considerable factor in the reduction in  the number of injuries and fatalities across our businesses.

Finally, our Chief Executive's Safety Awards, which were introduced in 2002,  have been an important way of recognising excellent safety approaches and performance.

Our results

Auditing against our safety standards began in July 2000 and since then, 264 audits have been undertaken.

In 2006, 39 audits were conducted as part of the fourth round of safety audits.  Of the reported 590 audit findings in 2006, there were 567 non conformances, including 41 significant ones.