There was a small increase in average accident rates throughout the Group in 2004. The rate of lost time accidents rose by 2.7% and the rate of all accidents at the workplace increased by 9.5%. The latter increase was partly due to the fact that first-aid injury cases occurring in German units were included in the statistics in a more comprehensive way in 2004. There are still marked differences between the accident rates of different units, however, and special attention has been paid to lower-performing units.

Absenteeism declining

The average absenteeism rate throughout the Group was 0.2 percentage points lower than in 2003, although there are marked differences between absenteeism rates in different units. Special programmes focusing on health promotion and reducing absenteeism have been started up, especially in units with high absenteeism figures.