The health and safety of our employees and customers is paramount

Our health and safety strategy is agreed by the Telefónica Europe Board and overseen by Health and Safety Champion - Richard Poston, Director of Corporate Affairs.

Our approach requires us to report bi-annually to the Health and Safety Champion’s Forum, the Governance Committee and the main Board.

We comply with the key elements of the ILO Safety and Health Management System 2001 and the BS OHSAS18001: 2007 Standard, to which we are certified.

We have a health and safety committee with a membership of managers and non-managers, trade union and works council representatives, Human Resources, Property and Health and Safety departments and others who may be invited from time to time.

We regularly consult recognised trade unions on health and safety. Representatives from both the Communications Worker Union (CWU) and Connect attend quarterly Safety Committee meetings. We have agreement from both unions that they will also represent non-union members on safety matters.

We are also represented on the European Social Dialogue Committee Health and Safety Working Group.

Key safety issues for O2 are safe driving; fire; work at heights; slips, trips and falls; the use of display-screen equipment; control of contractors; and violence to staff in our retail stores.

Focusing on these key aspects, our health and safety policies include mandatory training for all employees and we have a permanent target of zero tolerance to accidents in the workplace, which extends to contractors through procurement policies.

During the year we have not received any health and safety enforcement notices and have no such actions pending.

In 2007 there were 229 accidents reported, resulting in 451 days lost through injuries. 

About 40 per cent of our employees have undertaken driver training/assessment.