Sustainability Report 2006/07Other results and initiatives
We did not achieve our goal of zero Lost Time Injuries (LTIs) for 2006/07, with three lost time injuries affecting our employees in 2006/07 – the same as the previous year. There was a marked improvement in the safety performance of our contractors, with two lost time injuries compared with six the previous year, and our LTI frequency rate fell by 10% compared with the previous year.
As part of our commitment to help our people improve their health and wellbeing, information sessions were held on stress and depression, men’s and women’s health, and diabetes.
Melbourne Water’s structured graduate program continued to grow and we now have 15 graduates. This graduate group has the opportunity to access secondments to South East Water, Yarra Valley Water, GHD and Sinclair Knight Mertz (SKM).
Other opportunities for secondment expanded considerably with positions offered to our people for skill development and as a way of bringing expertise to Melbourne Water. We are working with Yorkshire Water to implement a three-month secondment exchange beginning in late 2007.
More than 150 Melbourne Water people were recognised through a revised reward and recognition program launched in February 2007. The program provides formal and informal methods of recognition for individual, team and community contributions, and enables employees to nominate their peers.
All Melbourne Water employees undertake a yearly performance and development planning process. This ensures that individual, team and organisational objectives are aligned and that all levels of the organisation are focused on ensuring that constructive behaviours and objectives support the achievement of our sustainability framework.
This year we increased our investment in learning and development initiatives for our people. On average, we spent $1770 per person for learning and development programs identifi ed in individual development plans. This is an average increase of $270 per person from 2005/06.
The Enterprise Agreement, covering 93% of Melbourne Water employees, expired on the 30 June 2007. Melbourne Water set up a Negotiating Committee comprising employee and union representatives, and management to work through all the issues in a constructive and structured way. The Committee commenced negotiations in March 2007. Negotiations have gone well with an expected implementation of the agreed conditions and issues in late 2007.