Health and safety

In 2018, Russian Railways joined Vision Zero, a global campaign seeking to completely reshape corporate approaches to health and safety management. This strategy requires actors at all levels, from executives to employees, to act with awareness in order to prevent any work-related accidents.

The reporting year saw the following reductions in workplace injuries across the Company vs the previous year:
  • overall injury rate (total number of injuries) down by 7.7% (from 182 to 168 employees);
  • fatal injury rate (number of fatal injuries) down by 19.2% (from 26 to 21 employees);
  • severe injury rate (number of severe injuries) flat y-o-y at 51 employees.
The workplace injury frequency rate dropped as follows:
  • overall workplace injury frequency rate (number of injuries per 1,000 workers) down by 6.8% (from 0.251 to 0.234);
  • fatal injury frequency rate (number of fatal injuries per 1,000 workers) down by 19.4% (from 0.036 to 0.029).
Key health and safety indicators
Indicator 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Health and safety improvement expenses, RUB m 16,330.0 18,593.5 18,715.5 20,121.1 22,596.1
Workplace injury frequency rate (number of injuries per 1,000 employees) 0.34 0.29 0.30 0.25 0.23
Number of workplaces with hazardous working conditions, thousand 131 105 95 88 84
Improved working conditions, thousand workplaces 33 23 32 37 41

The Company has fully implemented its risk-oriented approach, which provides for automated measurement of professional risks. The outcomes serve as a basis for managerial decision-making and health and safety improvements. On top of that, the Company has approved a Comprehensive Health and Safety Improvement Programme for 2018–2020 reliant on the risk-oriented approach.

In 2018, Russian Railways spent a total of RUB 22.6 bn on health and safety improvement initiatives. More than 47,000 Company’s employees took associated mandatory training with a subsequent knowledge check at education centres.