Group health & safety strategy

The Health & Safety Policy that came into force at the end of 2020 provides a comprehensive basis for meeting the requirements of safe and health workplaces. The policy contributes to responsible leadership and increases the importance and value of occupational safety and health protection at all levels of our company. It aims to avoid high accident, illness and turnover rates at the company.

It creates a minimum standard for all of our operations across the world. Of course, country-specific safeguards that go beyond this must also be observed at all times. The policy applies to all persons employed with or in similar relationships with Greiner and, where applicable, to external partners. Central aspects of our Health & Safety Policy include the appointment of internal safety officers for all Greiner operations (health & safety officer), who have corresponding authority and resources, i.e. authority to make decisions and give instructions, and providing a budget for purchases that promote health and safety. The policy also states that a certifiable management system with a focus on health and safety must be created, maintained and developed, a reporting system must be introduced for dangerous or unsafe situations or unsafe behavior and mandatory education and training provided for all managers on employee and health protection.

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Kristi Byrum (Greiner Bio-One)
Marketing Manager

Greiner Bio-One Hungary supports fitness and popular sports

As part of the Greiner Cross Challenge, Greiner Bio-One Hungary supports the annual highlight of the Hungarian cross country calendar as the event’s main sponsor. The main motivation behind this event and other sporting events sponsored by Greiner is to boost the appeal of sports and, in turn, a healthy lifestyle, for the population and particularly for young people. On September 19, 2020, a total of 80 teams, each with four participants, competed against each other in seven different running, hurdling and canoeing categories. The title of the sporting event, “Something wild”, excellently describes the route with its wild ups and downs and numerous tough hurdles and other obstacles. And if the Greiner Cross Challenge was not enough, a week later participants could again demonstrate their fitness levels at the fourth Greiner mountain bike race.

Prevention is better than cure

The best healthcare is a preventative system. Our intention is to prevent ill health in the first place. Our goal is thus for 100 percent of all sites to introduce measures for healthcare. In a first step, all sites should implement at least one measure in the area of health protection in 2020. All Greiner sites are to develop and implement at least two health measures by the end of 2021. 40 sites implemented at least one health measure in 2020. Unfortunately, there are still sites that have not introduced any health measures. We will have to keep working hard on our target of all sites implementing at least two measures each year.

We define health prevention projects and measures as all measures that aim to prevent or delay health problems or make these less likely to occur. The health measures introduced focused on medical care (44 percent).

Sites with at least one health measure¹

Health prevention in action

Health protection can take many forms. There are many small things that, added together, help our employees live healthier private and work lives. The concept of a workplace that helps maintain and promote health is also becoming increasingly relevant, as we need a healthy, qualified and highly motivated workforce if our company is to achieve success in the future. Workplace health promotion is thus becoming an integral part of any modern corporate strategy. The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion defines workplace health promotion as the “combined efforts of employers, employees and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work”. The two-pronged approach of our strategy for healthy and safe workplaces at Greiner aims to prevent work-related ill health, work accidents, work-related illness and stress while at the same time strengthening health and safety potential, thereby improving our employees’ wellbeing at work. To achieve this goal, we – as the examples below show – focus on measures to improve work organization and conditions, promoting active employee participation and improving personal health and safety skills.

Health prevention measures

Compared to the base year 2018, the total number of accidents rose by 29 in 2020, an increase of 6 percent. The rise in the total number of accidents reflects more minor accidents (increase of 23/up 10 percent) as well as serious accidents (increase of 12/up 6 percent). Encouragingly, this was countered by six fewer accidents on the way to work, representing a decline of 17 percent.

Accidents (total)

Accidents¹

Minor accidents¹

Serious accidents¹

Accidents on the way to work¹

Focus has increasingly shifted to occupational safety since our first sustainability report. We have since recorded accidents using consistent standards across the group. To assess whether accidents have actually increased relative to the number of hours worked, we also calculate the frequency of serious accidents per million hours of work performed. While this has decreased by 9 percent since 2018, at 11.59 it is still far higher than our goal of halving the number of serious accidents by 2025.

Frequency of serious accidents per one million hours worked¹

Frequency of accidents

We have made a number of plans to further reduce the number of accidents. In the medium term, we intend to introduce a management system for occupational safety and health protection at all production sites and also to have it certified according to ISO 45001. There is a particular focus here on sites that have already implemented a quality management system and environment and energy systems.

Production sites with certified management system ISO 45001