We work continuously to avoid work-related illnesses and injuries, and track the development through a corporate reporting tool. Guidelines for assessing risks in the work environment are actively used by the business areas to help map and evaluate Hydro's work environment.
Registered sick leave was 3.3 percent in 2010, down from 3.7 percent in 2009. The rules for sick-leave registration differ from country to country. Our sick leave in Norway is significantly higher than in Hydro on average, but relatively low compared to the average rate in Norwegian industry. In Norway, sick leave was 4.4 percent in 2010, compared with 5.1 percent in the previous year. Sick leave among male employees was 4.2 percent, down from 4.9 percent in 2009, while sick leave among females decreased from 6.0 percent in 2009 to 5.5 percent in 2010.
Our TRI rate (total recordable injuries per million hours worked) increased by 27 percent in 2010. Consequently, we did not reach our target of a 20 percent decrease. We had no fatal accidents in our consolidated operations, but two of our part-owned activities suffered one fatal accident each. In January 2011, a contractor employee lost his life in an accident during installation work at a new plant in France. As a result, we will not reach our 2011 target of no fatal accidents. Our TRI target of 2.7 in 2011, with no fatal accidents, is one of the President & CEO's personal KPIs and part of his bonus scheme.
We continue following up all high-risk incidents through thorough analyses and risk evaluations to determine how fatalities can be avoided. To further systematize our efforts, a fatality-prevention program was started in 2010. The program is rooted in risk assessments throughout the company, improved sharing of learning and regular audits - in addition to the aforementioned investigation of high-risk incidents.
