Occupational health and safety
Workplace safety and protecting employees’ health are at the heart of Vossloh’s care obligations as an employer. The Company aims to have as many units as possible certified in accordance with the internationally recognized ISO 45001 standard. The standard provides the Company with suitable tools and measures to integrate occupational safety and health protection into its processes. For the top managers of the operating units, achievement of the defined occupational safety performance indicators is an integral part of their pay-related target agreements. Since 2021, an occupational health and safety training module has been available to all employees via the Vossloh Learning Platform (VLP).
In occupational health and safety, Vossloh identified the following three issues as material in the 2021 materiality analysis. A Group-wide initiative has been defined for this area, with the aim of reducing the frequency and severity of occupational accidents by 20 percent per year. Relevant key figures for goal achievement are the internationally used variables such as lost time accident frequency rate (LTAFR) and lost time accident severity rate (LTASR), as well as the number of potential accident risks reported and minimized via the SAFE+ app.
In the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic again presented Vossloh with special challenges in protecting the health of its employees and preventing the spread of the virus in the workplace. Coordinated via the COVID-19 crisis team, comprising the Chief Operating Officer, the heads of the Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Human Resources and Corporate Controlling departments, and the HSE managers of the business units, the comprehensive protective and precautionary measures introduced in the previous year were maintained and readjusted as necessary. The Group Works Council, local employee representatives and the Work Safety Committee were involved in the decisions. At all sites, Vossloh‘s employees were informed about the impact of vaccination against the virus. In some cases, units even conducted on-site vaccinations.
Because employees working in production were instructed to stay home and be tested at the slightest suspicion of infection, there were brief interruptions in production at several sites throughout the year. In our administrative divisions, employees worked remotely in the main. We prioritized online contact with our customers, suppliers and service providers. In 2021, 377 cases of COVID-19 were reported by Vossloh employees throughout the Group.