health and safety in the workplace

At TELUS, we believe health and safety is a team effort and an integral part of our daily business. Every member of the TELUS team plays an important role in establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace. Our health and safety policy, available to team members through our internal portal and posted in buildings where team members work, outlines our health and safety goals and the operational principles that govern our workplace.

TELUS team members can express their concerns and feedback about safety through the health and safety committee program. TELUS has 75 health and safety committees or approximately one committee per 400 team members (for high-risk areas, the ratio is about 15 to 20 team members per committee).

All health and safety committees are comprised of both non-management and management members. The non-management members are selected by the union where the union represents team members and by a majority vote where the union does not represent team members. The prime duty of a health and safety committee is to expeditiously deal with unresolved workplace health and safety issues brought to its attention. TELUS also has policy health and safety committees that deal with global policy and unresolved issues from the health and safety committees. All health and safety committee members are trained in their roles and responsibilities.

Each of TELUS' legal entities has a customized approach to health and safety that includes policies, training, inspections and safety committees. TELUS voluntarily conducts audits of our safety management system on a regular basis to identify areas for improvement.

Safety management system

TELUS' health and safety program applies to all TELUS team members, although priority attention is directed to higher-risk occupations. In high-risk areas, safety training begins as soon as new team members join the company.

TELUS clearly emphasizes to front-line managers and team members their responsibility for safety as they are the closest to workplace hazards. Front-line team members in TELUS' highest risk organization, TELUS Network Operations (TNO), are assigned "profiles," which outline the minimum requirements for training, inspections and safety meetings necessary to ensure the health and safety of team members at work. TNO's Operations Administrative Tracking System (OATS) tracks compliance with the mandated safety targets. OATS compliance is reviewed by senior managers regularly.

We also provide quarterly updates to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors on TELUS' safety performance. The quarterly updates provide a review of safety statistics including key metrics on our hazard identification and control programs.

Accidents and injuries in the workplace

TELUS uses an online, interactive hazardous occurrence investigation reporting system. The system is accessible to all team members and allows for the near real-time review and tracking of the severity and frequency of safety incidents in TELUS' workplaces. Through this tracking tool, trends in hazardous occurrences are recognized earlier and prevention strategies implemented sooner, creating a safer and healthier workplace for all TELUS team members.

TELUS continues to improve its safety performance. In 2006, our consolidated accident frequency was 0.94 lost-time accidents per 200,000 person-hours worked. Over the past four years, TELUS has reduced its lost time accidents by 22 per cent.

Workers Compensation Board claims

In 2006, TELUS reported consolidated work-related claims and their associated lost productive hours for its integrated operations. TELUS overall claims and lost productive hours were significantly down from the 2005 reporting period.

Absenteeism

In 2006, TELUS showed positive trending in its overall absence rate. TELUS average days absence per team member decreased from 10.4 days to 9.47 days, exceeding the target for the year, and moving the organization closer to its long-term goal of 8.3 days per team member and to alignment with benchmarking results for telecommunications companies in Canada.