Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 87
Worldwide Safety Measures
In the year under review, ACTEGA Artística was one of the
first companies in Spain to receive ISO 45001:2018 certification,
which focuses primarily on prevention systems and
the implementation of a culture of continuous improvement
in occupational safety. This certification is an important
milestone within the SAFETY FIRST program, through which
ACTEGA Artística raises awareness of safe behavior and
procedures at both management and employee level.
The safety weeks and safety days successfully introduced
in previous years were again held at various locations
worldwide in the year under review. In addition to firmly established
events such as European Safety Week at all
ELANTAS Europe locations, the Safety and Health Day at
ALTANA and BYK in Wesel, or Celebration of National
Safety Day at ELANTAS Beck India, ACTEGA North America
launched a promising new safety campaign called What’s
Your Why? In this poster campaign, employees share their
personal reasons for accident-free work with their colleagues
and thus motivate them to engage in safe behavior.
The company’s suggestion scheme (CSS) is actively
used at seven German sites as an instrument for maintaining
and improving ALTANA’s safety culture. Employees submit-
ted around 800 ideas in the year under review, a large proportion
of which were suggestions for improvement in the
areas of occupational safety and environmental protection.
The implemented suggestions not only contribute to improving
ergonomic conditions and occupational safety, but
also lead to cost savings.
A Focus on Safety Communication
In order to continue to strengthen the employees’ understanding
of uniform safety in the future, the ALTANA Group
and the safety culture as a whole. In addition to the further
development and implementation of technical and organizational
measures and the detailed analysis of “near misses,”
behavior-based safety training enables staff to practice
safe behavior in every situation.
The SAFETY@ALTANA newsletter, which was successfully
launched in 2018, will continue to be published regularly,
but in an improved and more attractive format. It is
available to all employees via the ALTANA Intranet.
Accidents
with significant frequency and relevance are presented in
the ALTANA staff magazine together with strategies for their
prevention. In addition, all sites worldwide have established
their own safety organization, which is responsible among
others for complying with all local occupational safety reg-
ulations, for training and education measures, and for recording
and evaluating accidents and near misses.
Incidents in Detail
Based on the instructions for reporting on globally harmonized
process safety key figures in accordance with the
International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) and on
the definition provided by the German Chemical Industry
Association (VCI), we had a total of 18 significant incidents
in the year under review. A comparison with previous
years is not meaningful, as the criteria for reportable events
changed during the period under review.
16 of the incidents were chemical spills and the other
two were fires. In one of the cases there was minor release
of a chemical with soil contamination. The contaminated
soil was removed and disposed of properly. No employees
were injured in any of the events.