Safety

Global Safety Policy

Sara Lee is committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment for its employees, contractors, and visitors. Each facility, through its management team, must implement a safety program that includes appropriate job risk analyses and training, meets or exceeds applicable laws and government regulations, and complies with Sara Lee's own safety and health standards. We believe each job should be performed safely and are committed to continuous improvement in our safety performance.

Because safety is everyone’s responsibility, each employee is responsible for observing the safety and health rules and practices that apply to his or her job and work environment. Employees are responsible for taking precautions necessary to protect themselves and their co-workers, including immediately reporting accidents, injuries, and unsafe practices or conditions. Appropriate and timely action will be taken to address known unsafe conditions.

The health and safety of all employees, and the quality and productivity demanded by consumers, customers, and stakeholders, require each employee to report to work free from the influence of any substance that could prevent him or her from conducting work activities safely and effectively.

Total Recordable Incident Rate
For fiscal 2011, the Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) was 2.70; this is a 45% reduction from fiscal 2006.

The TRIR is calculated following the U.S. OSHA Recordkeeping Guidelines applied globally; the number of recordable injuries are multiplied by 200,000 then divided by the total number of hours worked. This is also referred to as the number of injuries per 100 full-time employees. In general, a recordable injury is one that requires medical treatment beyond first aid or results in work restrictions or lost days from work. The rates include all temporary worker injuries.

The significant decrease in the TRIR reflects our focus on improving the safety in our workplaces and on teaching our employees the proper way to perform their work. The better-than-industry average rate results from a sound strategy and processes coupled with management and employee commitment to safety – in short, an improved safety culture.

Lost Workday Case Frequency Rate
For fiscal 2011, the global Lost Workday Case Frequency Rate (LWCFR) was 1.12; this is a 6.5% reduction from fiscal 2006.

The LWCFR was calculated by multiplying the total number of cases resulting in lost work days due to a work related injury or illness by 200,000 and then dividing by the total number of hours worked.

The decrease in the LWCFR of 6.5% is not as dramatic. This reflects the fact that it is not always possible to find light duty opportunities for employees with restrictions due to injuries, thereby making each of these cases lost work day situations.

This chart is another representation of our injury rates showing the number of injuries sustained for every million hours our employees worked. The trend is the same as the chart above but the rate was calculated by dividing the number of millions of hours worked by the number of injuries requiring medical treatment (recordable) in addition to all injuries resulting in days away from work.