Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 91
infections being brought in from outside the respective site.
Thus, mobile work not only served to protect people who
could work from home, but also, and more importantly, to
protect employees who continued to work at the respective
site due to their job profile.
Travel was kept to a minimum. Work meetings were held
predominantly in virtual space. Appropriate hygiene concepts
were drawn up for major internal and external events.
Depending on the situation, some events were postponed,
canceled, or held digitally as a precaution. These included
larger customer events staged as online seminars.
Ergonomics
Ergonomics make an important contribution to occupational
health and safety. Workplaces and activities designed
appropriately increase the productivity of the workforce
and reduce absences due to illness. For example, ECKART uses
lighter drum covers at its Painesville site in the U.S., result-
ing in a weight reduction from 17 kg to 7 kg. This makes it
easier to change the covers and prevents overloading of
the arms. The commissioning of an automatic packaging facility
at the same site significantly reduces manual work while
simultaneously increasing productivity.
ALTANA again invested in lifting aids in the year under
review. ACTEGA introduced appropriate lifting aids for drums
at the U.S. site in Charlotte and for bags and containers at
its site in Spain. ELANTAS in Quattordio (Italy) implemented
improvements in the handling of can containers, making it
easier to move the containers both in production and in the
warehouse. In addition, ELANTAS established a new, lighter
container type in response to customer requests.
Ergonomics is incorporated directly into the planning
of new buildings and new plants. For example, ELANTAS in
Malaysia uses filling systems on newly installed reactors
that can handle bagged containers in the 500 kg to 1,000 kg
Occupational safety and occupational health protection are
top priorities at ALTANA. This year, too, we succeeded in
keeping the number of occupational accidents at our sites
at a low level, thus achieving our ambitious safety targets
once again. ACTEGA was again able to significantly reduce
the figure, while BYK and ECKART recorded an increase.
ELANTAS succeeded in keeping the number of occupational
accidents low.
Some sites and companies are particularly distinguished
by their occupational safety: BYK and ELANTAS in Tongling,
ECKART Zhuhai, and ELANTAS Beck India in Pune have been
accident free for at least ten years. ACTEGA Foshan and
ELANTAS Zhuhai have gone more than five years without an
accident (nine years and five years, respectively). Another
five sites have been accident free for at least three years.
Further facts and figures can be found in the Group
Management Report starting on page 68 f.
Measures Taken in Connection with the
Coronavirus Pandemic
In coping with the coronavirus pandemic, we consistently
pursued the safety measures introduced in the previous year
and adapted them to the respective situation. As a result,
the virus was unable to spread more widely at any of our sites
in the reporting year. This was due not only to the self-
discipline of our employees, but also to the safety culture that
is firmly anchored at ALTANA. And it is confirmation that
the measures we took early on were the right ones. The crisis
teams at the company, division, and Group levels create a
clear decision-making and communication structure. In addition,
all relevant information, regulations, and recommen-
dations for dealing with the coronavirus are available centrally
on an overview page on ALTANA’s Intranet.
At the sites, not only strict hygiene and distance rules,
but also increased use of mobile work reduced the risk of