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.

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. A series of seminars conducted by ProMente entitled “First aid for the soul” instructed employees in how to give first aid to people showing signs of mental illness.

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 2025” (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”, 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.

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 2022/2023 fiscal year, the Group (excl. Czech Republic Segment) saw around 189 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: 157). 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 70 reportable work accidents were registered (previous year: 69), which corresponds to an accident rate of 13.90 accidents per 1,000 employees (previous year: 14.10 accidents per 1,000 employees) ¹⁾. The accident severity amounted to an average of 29.8 days of sick leave per work accident (previous year: 19.9). Converted to an international indicator value, this corresponds to an LTIF (Lost Time Injury Frequency) of 8.6 per 1 million working hours (previous year: 8.3). As in the previous year, there were no fatal work accidents.

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 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.

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.

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.

Austrian employees have access to a wide range of training options on workplace safety; these courses may also be attended if necessary by staff of external contractors active in the technical and electrical engineering areas. 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 construction-site security and working with lifting equipment. In the field of health and safety, Energie AG also offers e-learning modules on such topics as fire prevention, protection against falls and working in enclosed spaces.

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.

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.

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 of the Work Safety Act (ASchG), employees have access to an occupational health specialist for initial medical consultations.

According to article 8 of the Employee Protection Act (ASchG) and the Construction Work Coordination Act (BauKG) on construction sites, Energie AG is obliged to coordinate risk prevention steps. External companies active for Energie AG are informed of dangers posed by Energie AG (through electrical systems, hydraulic risks in hydroelectric power plants, traffic on company premises, etc.).