Workplace health and safety

The health and safety of employees is understood as an important success factor and promoted by targeted priority programmes and internal campaigns.

Only healthy and satisfied staff can be successful with their work for a company. Energie AG works to ensure awareness and personal responsibility around the quality of work and occupational safety among its employees. In fiscal year 2021/2022, the internal campaign “100% safe” was launched to alert employees to potential hazards in their work environment and at the same time motivate them to contribute their own ideas on how to further improve work safety.

The “in-house psychological service hotline” of Energie AG Group offers employees free advice and help in conflicts, stress, work overload, anxiety, sleep disorders and personal crises (bereavements, sickness etc.). The service offers advice in person or over the phone and aims at carving out possible solutions that the employees can implement in their own responsibility.

In accordance with § 4 of the Employee Protection Act (ASchG), potential hazards are ascertained and assessed by the respective managerial staff (or the responsible commissioned staff member pursuant to § 9 Administrative Penal Act (VStG)) and § 23 Work Inspection Act (ArbIG) with the help from the relevant work safety and occupational health experts. This forms the foundation for the determination of measures (workplace evaluation). The “Safety Manual” of the Austrian lobby group “Österreichs Energie” serves to evaluate individual activities. Shortcomings in the Austrian entities detected during the regular inspections pursuant to § 77a Work Safety Act (ASchG) are also assessed in accordance with a risk matrix pursuant to ISO 45001:2018 (excluding the Waste Management Segment). The employees also rate their work activities on a risk matrix provided by the safety management in the form of training templates.

Work accidents or incidents that almost resulted in an accident are investigated by the safety management in accordance with the Employee Protection Act insofar as an investigation appears expedient for the prevention of further accidents. This allows for the development of suitable measures, such as a change of work materials, work equipment, work processes, personal protective equipment, or more frequent inductions.

Hazards and risks are reported to the direct line manager. Other persons (employer, safety expert, occupational health specialist etc.) are involved as required to identify these hazards and minimise risks as far as possible. In accordance with § 82 Employee Protection Act, the employees have access to all services offered by an occupational health specialist.

As required under the Employee Protection Act, the involvement of safety liaison staff or the relevant employee representatives assures that the employees are involved in issues concerning work safety.

The employer communicates safety-relevant issues to employees down the hierarchical levels in accordance with the organisational structure and in consultation with the safety liaison officer. The employees in Austria have access to a wide range of training options on work safety (e.g. e-learning modules on preventative fire protection, protection against falls, work in enclosed spaces; in-person events for construction site safety, working with electricity, and working with lifting equipment).

Preventive action and information are used to prevent work-related adverse health conditions and staff are directed to be more conscious in their approach to health through the “energy@work” project. If an individual has already fallen ill, the Company takes steps to promote their recovery. Energie AG’s company health management policy was awarded the “Betriebliche Gesundheitsförderung bis 2022” (Workplace Health Promotion) seal of approval (except for the Czech Republic and Waste Management Segments).

Numerous programmes contribute to safeguarding the employees’ health (e.g.“healthy 15 minutes”, Medimouse (spinal) measurements, first aid courses, shiftwork fitness basics workshop).

Topical issues are discussed and solutions are developed in regular health meetings including employee representatives, occupational health professionals and safety management specialists. Weekly exercise programmes at a number of work sites also promote health awareness. The range of occupational healthcare services includes extensive contact during consultation hours and vaccination campaigns. The results of the employee survey 2021 was followed up with a range of measures in the individual subsidiaries.

The first health day took place at the new building of Umwelt Service GmbH in Wels in the spring of 2022. Employees had the opportunity to have preventive medical check-ups with trained experts from the health sector at several stations, attend workshops and learn about healthy nutrition.

Workplace safety

Energie AG ensures that the specifications of the Employee Protection Act and the associated regulations are consistently observed throughout the Group, and that appropriate preventative measures are implemented. In the 2021/2022 fiscal year, the Group (excl. Czech Republic Segment) saw around 157 announced and unannounced workplace, external workplace and construction site inspections carried out by safety experts and occupational health professionals together with those responsible on site and/or Energie AG Group management as part of due diligence measures (previous year: 169). Office workplaces were reviewed to assure ergonomic design and, if necessary, adjusted to keep the number of musculoskeletal conditions among employees as low as possible.

A total of 69 reportable work accidents were registered (previous year: 70), which corresponds to an accident rate of 14.1 accidents per 1,000 employees (previous year: 14.8 accidents per 1,000 employees) ¹⁾. The accident severity amounted to an average of 19.9 days of sick leave per work accident (previous year: 29.2). Converted to an international indicator value, this corresponds to an LTIF (Lost Time Injury Frequency) of 8.29 per 1 million working hours (previous year: 9.70). As in the previous year, there were no fatal work accidents.

The legally required inductions with respect to health and safety at work and risk prevention steps are regularly held throughout the Energie AG Group. The short briefings were extended to include several new topics and are available for employees to access online.

A large number of subject-specific training courses were conducted during the reporting period as part of due diligence measures. Employees of third-party contractors in the technical and electrical engineering sectors are also allowed to attend if they require additional training. In addition to training courses on “working with live electrical equipment” and operational use authorisation, training modules on low and high voltage electrical system operation and management authorisation were also offered, along with other safety-related topics such as working with lifting equipment.

While the natural objective of the safety experts is to bring the rate and severity of accidents down to zero, they place great emphasis on potential work accidents with a high likelihood of occurrence and high severity of the potential injury. Approaching this number requires employees to receive the best possible training and the responsible colleagues to receive maximum support. Workplaces and activities are also subjected to a continuous evaluation and the necessary measures are adjusted as required.

Energie AG takes workplace safety (i.e. potential hazards and risks in and around the buildings) very seriously. Building security inspections for all office, workshop and storage buildings are carried out annually to check how safe they are. The results of these inspections are to used to develop measures both to comply with legal requirements and to serve as a way of preventing hazards from arising in the first place.