The Top Priority is Occupational Safety
Occupational safety and occupational health protection are
top priorities at ALTANA.
Through various technical and organizational measures,
which are adapted to the production conditions at the
sites and to the laws and regulations applicable there, we
ensure continuous improvement in the health and safety of
our employees. To achieve a uniform safety culture, ALTANA
also relies on targeted training programs for employees.
Since 2007, the Work Accident Indicator (WAI) has been
used throughout the Group as the most important key
figure for monitoring and continuously improving the development
of occupational safety at all sites. The indicator
shows the number of accidents at work and lost work days,
and sets them in relation to the total number of hours
worked. On the basis of this data, ALTANA’s Management
Board together with the EH&S department sets three
WAI values as targets for each year, which apply equally to
all companies in the ALTANA Group.
As in previous years, there were no fatal accidents in
2019.
In the year under review, certain sites again achieved
remarkable results in terms of their occupational safety. The
BYK Tongling and ELANTAS Beck India sites, which have
been accident-free for more than eleven years, deserve special
mention. ECKART Zhuhai (nine years), ACTEGA Rhena-
coat and ELANTAS Tongling (eight years each), and ACTEGA
Foshan (seven years) have been accident-free for more than
six years. ACTEGA do Brasil (Santana de Parnaíba), ECKART
Suisse, and ELANTAS Zhuhai have been free of accidents
for more than three years.
Furthermore, ALTANA was able to improve all three
accident indicators (WAI 1, WAI 2, and WAI 3) in the year
under review. Compared to the previous year, the WAI
indicators decreased in all three categories. Thanks to this
WAI 1 (number of occupational accidents with lost work time of
one day or more per million working hours)
2016 3.9
2017 4.0
2018 3.7
2019 2.8
(Target 2020: 2.8)
Target 2019: 3.0
WAI 2 (number of occupational accidents with lost work time of
more than three days per million working hours)
2016 2.5
2017 3.1
2018 2.7
2019 2.1
(Target 2020: 2.0)
Target 2019: 2.1
WAI 3 number of lost work days due to occupational accidents per
million working hours)
2016 38.2
2017 54.6
2018 36.5
2019 34.8
(Target 2020: 35.0)
Target 2019: 40.0
encouraging development, it was also possible to meet the
targets the company had set itself for the year under review.
ALTANA achieved these results through various measures
to further improve the safety awareness of employees
86 Safety and Health