OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Telkom has implemented occupational safety as a crossdisciplinary responsibility protecting the safety of employees at work, as well as the safety of co-workers, family members, customers, service providers, nearby communities and other members of public who are also affected. Over the past few years Telkom has introduced many campaigns, policies, procedures and programmes to prevent Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) related incidents.

During this reporting period, our health programmes focused on a reduction in healthcare costs and absenteeism. This resulted in improved productivity and contributed towards the creation of a more supportive and sustainable working environment. OHS also seeks to assist employees making choices that facilitate work-life balance and a more sustainable workforce.

Meeting GRI LA7 and LA8¹

The disclosure below meets the requirement of the GRI’s LA 7 Indicator:

Telkom has education, training, counselling, prevention, and risk-control programmes in place to assist employees, their direct dependents and contract workers with serious diseases. Telkom believes that employees who are physically and emotionally well, and have a positive and committed attitude, are more motivated to achieve business success.

This, in turn, can greatly influence productivity, which is a key aspect in ensuring the sustainability of our business.

It is therefore the objective of Telkom’s Thuso HIV/AIDS and Wellness Workplace programme to keep employees healthy. This is accomplished by highlighting the importance of good health through education and regular screening. The programme also assists employees that are already at risk of developing chronic lifestyle conditions to adapt their lifestyles.

The Thuso HIV/AIDS programme is in place across Telkom’s South A frican operations to educate, train, counsel, prevent, and manage the risk of employees contracting serious diseases.

The programme includes:

As part of our education and awareness strategy, the Thuso Workplace Programme is included in Telkom’s induction programme for all newly appointed or recently promoted employees to educate them about its objectives, roles and benefits.

Telkom’s HIV/AIDS prevention strategy includes a nationwide free condom dispensing programme.

In addition, the Telkom Foundation provides funding to a number of programmes that have education, training, counselling, prevention, and risk-control programmes in place to assist communities with serious diseases, primarily HIV/AIDS . These programmes are described on the following two pages. The total Telkom Foundation spend on programmes that address serious diseases amounts to R1,435,100 (total Telkom Foundation spend is R 42 million for the financial year).

Workplace Safety

Telkom’s OHS management system is OHSAS 18001 certified and aligned to the Telkom Health and Safety Policy (OHSP). Telkom has a detailed OHS policy which takes a holistic approach towards ensuring overall compliance with the legal requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act), 85 of 1993. To maintain compliance with applicable legislation and the Telkom OHSP, it is imperative that Telkom initiates OHS performance targets which drive a more specific approach in managing certain identified legal requirements and emerging statistical trends. The OHS performance targets are reviewed periodically to address any current OHS needs. The respective service organisations within the Group ensure the implementation and achievement of the Telkom OHS performance targets on a quarterly basis. The safety, health and environment (SHE) management division monitors these targets accordingly and provides support where intervention is required.

During this reporting cycle, internal OHS legal compliance audits were carried out on operational managers to determine a baseline compliance rating for the Group. The methodology used during the audit programme took a slightly different approach whereby the audit team utilised each individual audit session to identify compliance gaps and to coach, train and support line managers immediately. The response from line management indicated that the exercise was extremely well received.

The ultimate goal of this exercise is to maintain an overall compliance rating of at least 85% and to improve the incident frequency rate of 2.66 per 100 employees and a lost time incident frequency rate of 1.42 per 100 employees. This will ultimately contribute to an improved lost time and productivity performance for the Group.

Telkom OHS performance targets

As stipulated in the OHSA ct and associated ISO 18001 Standard, periodic reviews of a company’s performance against the requirements of the OHSA ct are imperative in determining overall compliance and effectiveness of the OHS management system. The audits incorporated an assessment of OHS compliance and achievement towards the Telkom OHS performance targets as listed above.

During this reporting period a stratified sample of 492 operational managers was audited. The findings of the collective audits yielded an 82% compliance rating, an improvement of 3% when compared with last year’s performance results.

Overall OHS compliance and Telkom SHE performance targeTS

An overall compliance rating of 82% indicates that Telkom is committed to ensuring the health and safety of its employees. The quality of Telkom’s OHS document management system website also demonstrates its support towards assisting both the employer and employees by providing online access to methods, procedures, guidelines, policies and the necessary forms to successfully implement a sustainable OHS management system.

Section 16(2) assignees trained

During the 2013 financial year, 53 selected executive management employees were appointed as Section 16(2)’s by the GCEO to assist with the requirements of the OHS Act. The Section 16(2) appointees have undergone formal training provided by an external training institution.

The newly appointed Telkom GCEO will undertake to appoint designated Section 16(2)’s executives to assist with the implementation of his OHS Act mandate in the next period. Further training opportunities will be provided to ensure compliance.

Injuries on duty (IOD)

It is with deep regret that we report that two Telkom employees lost their lives as a result of a vehicle accident. The Telkom board and executive management extend their condolences to the employees’ families and colleagues. Through Telkom’s Retirement Fund the necessary financial support to the families of the deceased, as per rules of the fund, was made available and bereavement support was also offered through the Company’s Employment Assistance programme. Their names and details are recorded below:

No fatality on duty is acceptable and Telkom will continue to work with all employees, unions and stakeholders to reduce the number of fatalities to zero.

The following tables and graphs exclude Trudon and Swiftnet:

In the period under review, the Incident Frequency Rate (IFR) improved by 13%, while the Lost Time Frequency Rate (LTIFR) experienced only a marginal improvement. The Group aims to maintain an LTFR below 1.5 and to improve IFR to below 2.5. Data excludes Trudon and Swiftnet.

Table: injuries on duty (IOD) 2009 to 2013

Graph: Incident frequency rate	Graph: Lost time incident frequency rate
Graph: number of lost days as a result of IOD	Graph: number of lost days per 100 employees
Graph: IOD costs (Rm)

Over the past five years we have observed a significant reduction in the number of days lost as a result of incidents on duty (28%) and in days lost per 100 employees (39%).

This resulted in a 3.8% decrease in the total cost-to-company of incidents on duty.

Fall injuries are the leading cause of IOD at Telkom. Our challenge will be to drive behavioural change to reduce the incident rate further.

Occupational Health Medical Surveillance programme

The purpose of Telkom’s Medical Surveillance programme is to identify medical conditions that could lead to an occupational disease. Risk based medical surveillance fi-tfor-duty medicals are conducted at the following intervals:

The following information is taken into consideration when determining the type of medical surveillance programme required:

The specific test results and other medical information revealed through testing are confidential and stays between the employee and the occupational medicine practitioner.

Clinical case management

A total of 165 cases were seen by our occupational medical practitioner between April 2012 and March 2013. The graph below illustrates the most prevalent diagnoses of clinical case referrals in the 2013 financial year:

Graph: Clinical Case Management: 165 cases	Graph: types of medical screening for the period April 2012 to March 2013

Medical surveillance, or screening, is a statutory requirement. Medical screening takes place at timed intervals that are determined by risk based criteria to ensure that employees are medically fit to perform their inherent duties and are not subjected to health hazards. This demonstrates preventative action being taken to avert future incidents. The frequency of the medical surveillance is based on the applicable laws and regulations as well as determined by Telkom’s occupational medical practitioner. Thus, not all employees will be screened in terms of medical surveillance during the course of any given year; this will also depend largely on an employee’s risk profile.

The following different types of medical screening are performed on site by occupational health practitioners:

A total of 4,130 medical examinations were performed in the different risk categories during the year.

The table below indicates the medical screening trends at Telkom:

Exposure to hazardous substance and electro-magnetic frequency (EMF) radiation

Telkom has an extensive EMF radiation exposure prevention programme in place to protect employees and communities at risk of exposure. All radiation zones on Telkom premises are demarcated to warn employees.

A further mitigating action put in place is to switch off power before employees enter these danger zones.

Telkom also has a well-defined audit programme in place which audits radiation patterns to ensure third parties are not be affected by Telkom’s EMF operations. Readings are taken annually and stored on a database for future reference. Where third parties have raised concerns, new tests are taken and the results reported back to the concerned party via Telkom’s Legal Services. There were no reported cases of EMF radiation levels exceeding the prescribed limits as per the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) specification.

Occupational hygiene

survey process

Occupational hygiene surveys were conducted as part of T elkom’s responsibility to provide a healthy and safe working environment.

Three types of surveys are conducted as part of our programme:

The following types of surveys are conducted by Approved Inspection Authorities:

Most of the parameters tested for by these surveys were within acceptable levels, apart from the turbidity levels for some of the water quality surveys that were conducted. However, elevated turbidity levels do not make water unsafe for human consumption.

Corrective action is being taken to resolve the material noncompliance issues identified through these surveys.

Thuso HIV/AIDS and Wellness Workplace Programme

Telkom’s Thuso HIV/AIDS and Wellness Workplace programme is a comprehensive and holistic programme which provides assistance at no cost to permanent employees and immediate families as well as contractors.

Graph: employee HIV tested prevalence rate

The above graph excludes Trudon and Swiftnet

The programme initiated in 2004 is regarded as one of the flagship initiatives in the Employee Wellness and SHE domain as well as the Telkom employee value proposition. It encapsulates Telkom’s wellness philosophy to care for and support its employees.

The Thuso value offering has been designed to measure lifestyle factors across inter-related health risk areas (diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure and BMI as well as HIV, TB and PSA). These on-site health risk assessments are offered during on-site Wellness Days to all employees, their families and contract workers.

Through these interventions certain high cost, high risk conditions are identified and managed by providing employees access to care, counselling and treatment through the Thuso Employee Wellness and HIV/AIDS Workplace programme. In addition to these services, health data is collected from voluntary participants in the annual Telkom Lifestyle Survey and evaluation of the programme is done through regular monthly reporting on the outcomes of the programmes, as well as an Annual Absenteeism Analysis and a KAP Survey amongst the recipients of the services of the Thuso programme.

During the year under review 6,455 employees participated in the on-site wellness events (an increase of 2,503 employees from the previous year).

HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Workplace Programme

Since its inception in 2004, the Telkom Thuso Programme has touched the lives of 37,173 individuals who submitted to voluntary HIV testing. During the year under review 5,862 employees (5,311 permanent employees and 551 contractors) were tested with 162 employees (139 permanent employees and 23 contractors) testing HIV positive. This equates to a HIV Tested Prevalence of 2.76% for permanent and contractor employees combined and 2.61% for permanent employees and 4.17% for contractors.

The combined HIV Tested Prevalence rate is illustrated in the graph and although there has been a slight rise from 2.4% to 2.7% since last year the general trend is decreasing, with more employees being tested in this financial year compared to the two previous years.

Tuberculosis screening

All employees that undergo Wellness Screening also undergo tuberculosis (TB) risk screening. Individuals that are at risk of having TB are referred for TB diagnosis and treatment.

6,347 employees (5,733 permanent and 614 contractors) were screened of which 95.75% reported no symptoms of TB. 3.54% of individuals screened reported one or more symptoms and 0.20% reported receiving TB treatment.

These percentages have remained stable since 2009 with a minimum of 95% of Telkom employees reporting no TB symptoms.

Treatment programme

The Thuso programme’s comprehensive value offering also includes pathological laboratory testing, individual clinical case management via the Thuso 24/7 Call Centre, screening, treatment of opportunistic infections such as TB and H1N1, post-exposure prophylaxis, mother-to-child transmission, psychological counselling, and the provision of nutritional supplements and drugs to an address of choice, which is what makes it so successful. This service offering is extended to spouses, partners, and dependent children who are regarded as immediate family. These services are available, at no cost, to Telkom permanent and contract and temporary employees.

Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) treatment is offered to those individuals registered on the Thuso Programme with a CD4 count of below 350 cells/ml, which is in line with the governmental and non-governmental organisation (NGO) norms.

The successful Thuso Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) programme provides 24-hour assistance via the call centre for people with any HIV risk exposure, such as rape or condom bursts. Individuals that become exposed have immediate access to the clinical call centre for advice and support and referrals for HIV testing, and starter packs for prophylaxis. We are proud to report that through this intervention we have had zero HIV transmissions since its inception.

We are also able to report that our extensive counselling provided to pregnant HIV -positive women on prevention of mother-to-child transmission has ensured that, since the programme’s inception, no HIV positive babies have been born.

Education

Condom distribution is an important component of any HIV/AIDS prevention strategy and, as such, forms part of our workplace prevention programme. For the year under review we distributed 2,157,502 condoms nationally, which is an increase of 1,903,215 from the previous cycle.

Employee Wellness Programme

Telkom hosts a series of Wellness Days across its operations on a regular basis. During the year under review, we also targeted specific functional units and regional sites with the objective of providing business-specific health profiles. The regional sites included remote or rural sites (less than 10 employees) that could not previously be reached due to distance and cost. These employees were afforded the opportunity to participate in the Thuso programme through the service of locally based medical practitioners.

Employees are also able participate in Telkom’s annual Lifestyle Survey, which focuses on issues such as alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, stress and chronic diseases.

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Graph: EAP referrals	Graph: EAP/100 employees
The above graph excludes Trudon and Swiftnet	The above graph excludes Trudon and Swiftnet

Telkom provides psychological care and support to its employees and their families to help them deal with personal, family and work related psycho-social problems, and to optimise psychological wellbeing. Research indicates a positive correlation between psycho-social wellness and productivity, and therefore demonstrates the strategic importance of the EAP as a management tool.

Numerous factors can influence the psycho-social well-being of an individual. In the past year, high levels of personal stress, marital and family difficulties, depression and finances were among the problems that were referred to the EAP for care and support. Employees experiencing trauma caused by hijacking, robberies, accidents and other crises were also referred to the EAP for counselling and therapy. These are the main causes for the rise in EAP referrals for this reporting cycle.

During the 2013 financial year, 983 individual and 131 group counselling requests were received. On average, 93 referrals were recorded each month. A total of 3,896 individual sessions were conducted at a cost of R 2,115,440 for the period. As in the previous financial year, the majority of the referred cases were crises and trauma related (27%), while 21.5% were attributed to marital and family related challenges.

Due to the sensitivity of many cases (medical conditions, personal finances, unwillingness to indicate the kind of problems experienced) 30.6% of the referrals did not specify the reason for the request for counselling.

Psychological problems such as stress, anxiety and depression made up a further 12.7% of the referrals received by the EAP office. Poor performance, absenteeism and incapacity accounted for a further 5.6% of the referrals and the remaining 2.6% were for substance abuse and other psychosocial related issues.

Network Field Operations (36.8%), Customer Services (9.1%), Network I nfrastructure Provisioning (7.5%), Network Core Operations (6.4%), Consumer Markets (4%) and Telkom Direct Shops (3.8%) were the predominant users of Telkom’s EAP services.

The EAP is not only responsible for the psychological care and support of its employees, but also strives to equip them with the necessary competencies to counteract the stresses and strains of daily living. Financial and stress management workshops, as well as psychological resilience and work-life balance interventions, were conducted as preventative and enabling interventions during the past year.