Occupational health and safety

As a manufacturing company, HUBER+SUHNER regards employees’ occupational health and safety (OH&S) as a priority and a material topic. We have a global Health and Safety Policy and apply the principles established by the International Labour Organization (ILO). HUBER+SUHNER strives proactively to prevent employees from having accidents at work and leisure, as well as from developing occupational diseases and their consequences.

Approach

Occupational health and safety management

HUBER+SUHNER ensures OH&S through strict adherence to local laws and regulations and to three global processes that were introduced at the end of 2020 and subsequently rolled out. Our global Health and Safety Policy is applied throughout our operations. Every plant has health and safety officers on duty to conduct regular trainings and walk-throughs which sensitise employees to both work-related hazards and health-related topics in general. With the participation and consultation of workers, we are able to identify hazards and assess workplace risks and seize opportunities early on in order to eliminate hazards before they become incidents.

Safe and legally compliant handling of hazardous material

To protect our employees as well as the environment when handling hazardous materials, we:

Guiding principles when handling hazardous materials

To constantly minimise risks associated with the handling of hazardous materials, we adhere to the following principles:

A global action plan and process board

The company has developed a global action plan to ensure globally aligned OH&S management.

All sites with production and/or warehousing activities are required to establish and maintain an OH&S management system. Internal audits continuously verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the OH&S processes and system, which are aligned with the requirements defined under ISO 45001.

Currently, only our production sites in Changzhou and Shanghai, China, are TÜV SÜD-certified according to ISO 45001 and underwent a recertification in 2023. Our mid-term ambition is however to have all major production sites certified according to ISO 45001.

In 2023, the Global OH&S Process Board, established in 2022, continued its work with a focus on more proactive approaches and professional practises. Annual OH&S targets, along with detailed management programmes, were set for all sites. These are regularly monitored to track the O&HS performance and to proactively identify and control hazards to improve incident and injury prevention. Special attention was paid to adapting management processes to identify and mitigate any potential hazards.

We monitor our performance according to three key figures:

[1] Also called Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) or Product Safety Data Sheet (PSDS)

Objectives

We want to continue to ensure our employees’ OH&S with the following objectives:

Progress

Absence rate

3.9 %

absence rate due to sickness

In 2023, the absence rate due to sickness [2] was 3.9 % (PY 4.0 %). For comparison: in the Swiss manufacturing sector, the absence rate was 4.0 in 2022 (most recent available statistics). [3]

Lost-time injury frequency rate  

4.1   

lost-time injury frequency rate in production

The lost-time injury frequency rate [4] for our employees in production (according to GRI disclosure 403-9) stayed at 4.1 in 2023 (PY 4.1), with ten sites reporting zero lost-time injuries.

Data and targets related to lost-time injuries are published only for direct and indirect production employees, as lost-time injuries among office employees are very rare and would skew the published figures.

Table 6: Lost-time injury frequency rate

XLS

Year

 

Lost-time injuries

 

Number of hours worked in production

 

Lost-time injury frequency rate  

2020

 

25

 

6 127 312

 

4.1

2021

 

28

 

5 582 078

 

5.0

2022

 

24

 

5 908 505

 

4.1

2023

 

22

 

5 371 050

 

4.1

Lost time injury severity rate: The lost-time injury severity rate [5] (in production and warehouses) was recorded for the third time. It showed 16 lost working days per lost-time injury (PY 16.8).

Fatalities: No work-related fatalities were recorded during the reporting period.

[2] Number of absence hours due to sickness divided by the planned working time (in hours)
[4] Lost-time injury: any injury sustained by an employee while on the job that prevents them from being able to perform their job for at least one day/shift; lost-time injury rate: the number of lost-time injuries that occurred during the reporting period per 1 million hours worked by production employees.
[5] The lost-time injury severity rate was calculated by dividing the number of lost working days by the number of lost-time injuries.

Planned actions

In 2024, we want to focus on the following actions to further promote and maintain our performance in occupational health and safety:

Stories from around the globe

Awareness campaigns

In China, India, Malaysia, Poland, Switzerland, Tunisia, and the United States, we organise health and safety campaigns and health check-ups (diabetes, breast and cervical cancer, spine health). To maintain and increase health, sports activities including yoga, Jom.Fit, and running events, and seminars about healthy nutrition are organised. Some locations also provide our employees with fruit baskets at work.

graphic
Our colleagues in Malaysia have been participating in the Jom.Fit fitness programme and organised nutrition workshops, aiming to adopt healthy habits such as regular exercises and a balanced diet to minimise the risk of cardio-vascular diseases.

Safety trainings

graphic
We are fully committed to prevent incidents on the shop floor. HUBER+SUHNER India is organising quarterly safety weeks to support our goal of a “zero incident company”.

In India and Switzerland, we raise awareness about health and safety by joining team events such as the road safety "Honda Manesar half marathon" and our "Bike to Work" participation.

Fire and first-aid emergency drills and trainings are conducted regularly in China, India, Mexico, Poland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Read our blog post on mental health in the workplace on the occasion of World Mental Health Day 2023.

back to top