Health and safety

The Company has developed a health and safety framework which requires local management to have suitable procedures in place to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations and best practices promoted by the Group. An important objective for the Group is to achieve work environments free from injury and illness attained as a direct result of improvements in our health and safety performance.

Wolseley UK has established an executive safety steering group, supported by its health and safety department, comprising senior managers and local board directors. The steering group reviews the UK businesses’ performance in health and safety matters, promotes good practice and ensures appropriate consultation on any intended changes to its health and safety management systems. All branch and area managers are trained in this area and all employees are trained to complete their daily tasks in a safe manner. Wolseley UK has also introduced new workplace health and safety initiatives including a new health and safety employee handbook and improved in-branch communications. These initiatives support the company’s ‘Don’t Walk By’ initiative, encouraging pro-active responses from employees in relation to all health and safety matters.

During the year, Wolseley UK introduced two new awards for its operations. The company’s ‘Health and Safety Awards’ incorporate five separate categories for various achievements in this field which are awarded to the highest performing branch locations and promote a positive attitude towards occupational health and safety. The ‘Commercial Driver of the Year Award’ aims to reinforce Wolseley’s commitment to road safety, helping to promote the highest standards of driving amongst Wolseley UK’s commercial fleet. The first of these annual events was held in October 2006.

In France, Brossette has a central health and safety committee,which oversees individual branch health and safety committees. Representatives of Brossette and its employees sit on each local committee, together with an occupational health doctor. All new employees and managers receive appropriate induction and training, including matters of health and safety. PBM also seeks to increase awareness of the importance of health and safety throughout its business by reinforcing the responsibility of each of its employees and their role in maintaining and improving health and safety standards. During the year, a Wolseley France health and safety committee was established and a number of initiatives to promote enhanced health and safety performance are being implemented across the business.

Wolseley Canada was awarded a ‘Work Safe Alberta Best Safety Performer Award’ from the Province of Alberta during the year. This is awarded to those companies that have a 40 per cent lower than industry average of disabling injuries, no work-related fatalities in the previous three years, no outstanding compliance orders under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety legislation and no pending prosecutions under the legislation.

In North America, Ferguson and Stock have continued to work together to enhance their health and safety performance including the incidence of traffic accidents. This has been driven, through the North American safety committee, by the desire to reduce the number of work-related injuries and the resulting consequences that such events have on other employees and the business. This has produced significant improvements in the longer-term trends in both companies’ health and safety records. Of those employees who have been injured at work during the year, approximately 98 per cent have returned to work either on modified duty or to their original jobs and the costs, including those associated with medical and other expenses for claims for workers’ compensation, were reduced by some $4 million. This project has now been extended to include Wolseley Canada. It is proposed to develop further initiatives within the Group’s European businesses applying the experience achieved in North America as appropriate.

Wolseley North America held a Winning Ideas in Safety & Health (W.I.S.H.) competition during the year for its employees across each of its businesses in the USA and Canada. This helped to enforce its commitment to strengthening the safety culture across all of the Group businesses, with the aim of promoting safety as an underlying theme in the way they operate each day.

Stock continues to operate and develop its ‘Driven to Safety’ programme which was first introduced in 2005. This is a proactive safe driver training programme, where every driver is trained in a variety of ways to recognise hazardous conditions, plan the appropriate response and take decisive action. As a result of this programme, Stock was recognised for its outstanding results in reducing its vehicle insurance claims by being presented this year with Liberty Mutual’s Gold Fleet Safety Award. The Driven to Safety initiative was also implemented by Ferguson during the year.

Ferguson has continued to promote its Customer ‘CARE’ (Customers and Associates Require Excellence) programme which is intended to symbolise Ferguson’s determination to achieve a culture of excellence throughout the organisation. The programme includes two goals aimed at communicating the importance of safety and quality and to promote a safe working environment for all of its employees.

In common with Mart in Hungary which obtained its accreditation in 1997, Cesaro in the Czech Republic has also continued to demonstrate its commitment to customer care during the year following its achievement of ISO 9001 accreditation for its quality management processes. The continued accreditations reflect the companies’ commitment to meet applicable regulatory requirements and exceed customer quality expectations through continuous improvement.