Health and safety policy
The Group has developed Occupational Health and Safety policy which, on high level, outlines the long-term direction for the Group to support and continually improve its health and safety performance providing an overall sense of direction, as well as framework for setting health and safety objectives.
The policy sets out requirements for the Group’s own health and safety work as well as states that the same strict requirements apply to its business partners. The Group’s business partners have to confirm that they acknowledge and will follow the principles stated in the conduct.
The Group aims to have zero injuries in the workplace and prevent all occupational illness. This is achieved through robust health and safety management which is detrimental for succeeding with identifying, preventing and mitigating significant negative occupational health and safety impacts.
The Group is continuously working on developing a strong safety culture which builds on the defined health and safety direction of the Group. The safety culture is supported by the Group’s values, managerial practices, patterns of activities and competencies – core elements in ensuring sustainable health and safety culture.
Health and safety Culture
The top management in the Group has the ultimate responsibility for an adequate health and safety management in the Group. Each company within the Group has identified specific health and safety roles and responsibilities assigned to one or several individuals to ensure sound and consistent health and safety management locally.
Health and safety management
The Group has a Quality Management System which is available to all employees1 and workers2 and contains universal documentation regarding health and safety management.
If relevant, the group’s companies also have their own local health and safety management documentation libraries which include description of work processes, procedures and other company specific relevant documentation to ensure that all operations are carried out in a safe manner. All employees and workers are covered by relevant health and safety management system.
The scope and nature of the health and safety management work is defined by relevant own, client and legal requirements. The Group has integrated risk management into its organizational activities, including health and safety management, and view it as part of its organizational purpose, governance, strategy and operations.
Quality management
The Group has a common system (an integral part of Quality Management System) for reporting of incidents, non-conformances and proposals for improvement to ensure that all types of incidents, non-conformances and proposals for improvement are registered in a single system helping the Group to gain an overview of the types of cases registered, trends and identify areas for improvement.
Incident Reporting and Risk Management
All work-related incidents, be they a near miss or an actual incident, are to be reported in the Group’s incident and improvement proposal reporting system where they are analyzed and handled by employees who have the competency to evaluate, and the authority make necessary changes to the existing practices to improve the overall health and safety performance of the organization. All companies have mapped out their work processes as well as identified process risks, hazards and their mitigating actions.
If relevant and necessary, for example in case of an extraordinary or new work activity to be carried out, a Safe Job Analysis (SJA) is performed prior to execution of the activity in question to ensure that potential risks are identified and there are barriers in place to address these risks. If the SJA concludes that there is a necessity to update or change the current processes, the change proposal gets submitted to the responsible process owner who evaluates the proposal and, if appropriate, makes the necessary changes.
95% (4666 employees) of the Group’s management systems are externally audited via various certifications schemes the Group is part of.
All employees and workers (4912) have received necessary training on how to identify risks and carry out risk assessment. They also received both generic training regarding the organization, its processes and procedures as well as specific training depending on their position and the type of work they carry out. Review of specific, work related hazards, hazardous activities and the appropriate procedures to address these is included in the training.
Compliance
All companies in the Group are compliant with the existing occupational health safety legislation in the countries they operate in as well as follow the principles laid out ISO 45001: 2018 standard Occupational Health and Safety: Basic Principles.
Occupational Health and Promotion of Employees' and Workers' Health
Each company in the Group (if relevant) has established cooperation with an Occupational Health and Safety service provider. Occupational health service providers are involved in risk identification processes as well as serve as advisory body regrading various health and safety issues.
The Group uses only authorized occupational health and safety services as well as performs due diligence prior to contracting an occupational health and safety service provider.
The Group is working on promoting employees’ and workers’ health by offering voluntary health promotion services, such as inhouse training and voluntary training groups which the employees and workers can join. Some of the companies offer a yearly physician check-up to evaluate the health condition of the person in question and suggest treatment if necessary.
Employee and Worker Participation
The Group has four core values – Honest, Open, Responsible and Creative. These are incorporated in all our activities and shall define our behaviors at work. All employees and workers are encouraged to provide feedback thus influencing and developing a transparent two-way communication, consultation and participation practice.
Employees and workers are enabled to contribute and comment on health and safety practices and it is ensured that all employees and workers have an opportunity to report hazardous situations, so that preventative measures can be put into place and necessary corrective action taken. The Group views consultation and participation of employees and workers as a detrimental success factor for the organization.
56% of all companies in the group have a formal joint management-worker health and safety committee the aim of which is to enable a two-way communication and exchange of information as well as give informed feedback to be considered by the organization before implementing a change or making a decision.
Employee representatives, which represent both employees and workers, are a central part of the joint management-worker health and safety committee. The committees meet at least four times a year, extra meetings can be held if necessary.
The committees are handling issues such as occupational health and safety services, safety representatives, training, organizational changes, corrective and preventative measures, risk evaluation as well as other working environment related issues. The Group aims to be a learning organization and is inviting feedback regarding improving its safe work practices.
Employees' and workers' right to remove themselves from hazardous work situations
The Group’s Code of Conduct, which all employees of the group must acknowledge and follow, states that health and safety is the number one priority of the Group and that no compromises shall be made when it comes to the employee’s and worker’s safety. All employees and workers have the right to remove themselves from work situations that they believe could cause an injury or ill health.
Whistleblowing
The Group has established an anonymous whistleblowing channel to ensure that there is a low-threshold reporting arena for those reluctant to speak up. The Group guarantees that the reporting person cannot be identified, and that all data is processed and stored in an encrypted way and that the employee or worker is protected against reprisals.
The reported whistleblowing cases are handled by an independent third party – consulting firm Ernst & Young. All employees reporting concerns shall receive feedback regarding their report no later than 14 days after submitting the whistleblower report.
The Group is monitoring and measuring the following health and safety performance indicators:
KPI Targets
These indicators are measured quarterly and are an effective tool to indicate the Group’s progress and performance regarding health and safety. The results of these measurements serve as building blocks for the Group’s health and safety priority planning.
1 Individuals who are in an emplpoyment relationship with the organization, according to national law or its application. Employees have an employment contract directly with the organization.
2 Persons who perform work for a certain period of time (for example, seasonal workers) and who are hired via a manning agency. Workers have a written contract with manning agency.