Health Management
The health of our employees is important to us and one of our corporate goals is to protect it. What is more, WACKER has signed the Luxembourg Declaration on Workplace Health Promotion in the EU. In doing so, we have undertaken to promote health and to encourage employees to improve their health.
We continued to pay particular attention to measures that help prevent coronavirus infections at the workplace. In this context, our priorities have been safeguarding employee health and ensuring supply continuity for our customers by keeping up production. Wherever feasible, employees worked from home.
At our German sites, we implemented the SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Safety and Health Regulation issued by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in the form of site-specific hazard assessments relating to protection against infection until they ceased to apply in April of the reporting year. In work areas that are vital for integrated production and where the prescribed distance could not be kept, employees complied with the requirement to wear a mask valid at a particular time.
These measures proved successful throughout the entire pandemic, with very few transmissions reported at workplaces where employees followed standards for preventing infection. We distributed self-administered coronavirus tests and face masks for personal use to employees at our German sites and explained the advantages of vaccination to them. Physicians at our German sites provided Covid vaccinations in keeping with requirements stipulated by law and/or government agencies.
Health protection focuses on avoiding adverse influences on employees at the workplace, for example due to hazardous substances. In health promotion, we focus on
- Avoiding back complaints and cardiovascular diseases in our workforce
- Boosting psychological resilience
- Facilitating age-appropriate work
- Providing suitable workplaces for employees with disabilities
When it comes to employee health protection, we take account of the digital transformation of work processes and the higher number of employees working remotely from home or elsewhere. Employees in Germany, for example, are invited to participate in virtual fitness classes for both relaxation and for strengthening their musculoskeletal system.
The key instruments of occupational health and safety include health screenings and health-promotion programs. Health Services advises employees on health concerns, in particular their ability to work and to start work again, and provides intensive, long-term assistance to employees with chronic illness, back problems or mental health issues.
We offer comprehensive preventive checkups to all employees over 45 years of age at all of our sites in Germany. In addition to organ exams, the focus is also on consultations with company doctors to review employees’ general health as well as their working environment. Systematic evaluations of mental stress in the workplace – appraisals that take occupational psychology considerations into account as well – are a standard component of hazard assessments at WACKER.
The number of recognized occupational diseases at WACKER’s sites in Germany is at a very low level. In the past, respiratory diseases and cancer were the most frequent causes of illness; there are some isolated cases where previous exposure to asbestos has caused occupational diseases.
We collect health metrics via annual surveys conducted at production sites throughout the Group. One case of occupational disease was reported at WACKER Germany in the reporting period. The results of the global survey will be available in the second quarter of 2024.
