Safety Courses and Employee Motivation

In matters of safety, WACKER attaches great importance to basic and advanced employee training. We regularly hold seminars on plant safety, explosion protection and work safety. Interactive learning programs on the intranet not only help us train new employees but also give existing employees the chance to continuously train themselves. Each tuition unit includes a test. Courses range from general safety instructions for office and lab staff, through pipe-work safety, to specialized training for forklift drivers.

In 2007, we launched Fresh Impetus for Work Safety, a global initiative to minimize accidents. During the reporting period, we trained executives in Germany on work safety, and sensitized employees to this issue with the help of poster campaigns, videos, interactive plays and articles in employee media. The aim was to reduce our already low accident figures. Groupwide, there were 3.8 workplace accidents with missed workdays in 2007 (4.1 in 2006) and 3.7 in 2008 per one million hours worked. In comparison, the German chemical industry’s insurance association (BG Chemie) quotes 9.1 accidents per one million hours worked in 2008. We recorded no fatal work-related accidents in 2007/2008.