Health and Safety

Employee health is always a top priority at Linde MH, so a wide range of measures are taken to promote awareness of a healthy lifestyle. As well as providing health-related information, many sites offer preventive health checkups, dietary advice, and vegetarian dishes in the canteen.

All employees have access to the “mein EAP” platform, which provides free and confidential advice and assistance to employees. This service includes solution-oriented support in overcoming crises, referrals to other institutions such as doctors, psychotherapists, counseling centers, and authorities, and face-to-face or telephone consultations.

Safety: Prevention Rather than Reaction

Regular and detailed risk analyses are conducted for all Linde MH workplaces, including both internal production and office facilities and the external working environments encountered by service technicians at customer premises. The aim of these analyses is to ensure that employees come to work healthy and return home healthy—without suffering any occupational health issues after the end of their careers.

A site-specific HSE risk assessment was carried out for the first time in 2017. The assessment looked at the focal points of activity on site, existing facilities, and the management system in place. Based on these factors, the KION Group—including Linde MH—is classified as medium risk in terms of HSE across all industries. This one-off assessment has since evolved into an ongoing tracking process, with the aim of continuously updating the risk assessment criteria and carrying out high-impact assessments for new sites.

Part of this risk assessment also involves evaluating mental stress in the workplace. This is done by completing a systematic questionnaire, which assesses the risks to employees’ mental health due to stress, mental fatigue, monotony, mental saturation, and emotional exhaustion to determine concrete actions needed to improve the situation.

Handling Working Materials and Hazardous Substances

Special care must always be taken when handling hazardous substances. An interdisciplinary hazardous substances committee therefore monitors all listed working materials along with their safety data sheets, legal aspects, and application methods. This body also encourages their replacement with less harmful substances where necessary, defines protective measures, and is responsible for the approval of new substances.

All employees who work with a hazardous substance and all persons who may come into contact with hazardous substances are informed verbally about the hazardous substances and the correct, safe procedures for handling these substances at least once a year. This includes potential hazards, protective measures, rules of conduct, as well as emergency measures, and may be supplemented by practical exercises. If a health and safety hazard cannot be eliminated by technical or organizational measures, the use of personal protective equipment is required.

Emergency Management

How employees respond to an emergency situation (such as an accident, fire, or other unforeseen event) has a significant bearing on the incident outcome. For this reason, Linde MH has introduced a process that ensures an appropriate, rapid, and organized response.

Up-to-date emergency plans are therefore available at all sites. These plans set out the most important information needed in an emergency in bullet point format, and are displayed in a clearly visible location, such as near the entrance or next to the fire extinguishers. Site management is responsible for preparing these plans, and is supported in this task by their safety specialists and—if available—the fire protection officers.

Accidents and near-accidents are recorded and carefully analyzed at all sites using various tools. In Switzerland, for example, a special reporting app has been introduced to learn from unsafe or dangerous situations. Employees can use this app to report risk situations online so that appropriate preventive measures can be taken to prevent them arising again in the future. The reported situations and the countermeasures taken are available on the Intranet and can be viewed by all employees.

As well as preventing adverse effects for the company, this can have a positive impact on the public perception of the company and its relationships with customers, suppliers, investors, and employees. In this way, Linde MH creates trust and is able to mitigate the negative impacts of an incident that could affect any site and any employee.

Regular training and instruction in occupational health and safety ensures employees and designated individuals (for example, first responders and fire safety officers) are able to respond quickly and appropriately in hazardous situations. All conceivable company-specific incidents and scenarios must be covered.

New employees must complete workplace- and job-specific training on hazards that could arise as well as protective measures and appropriate conduct in case of an emergency before starting work and at least once a year thereafter. The precise nature of this training depends on the respective requirements.

The respective manager is responsible for providing the safety training, which includes the following topics:

• safety-related responsibilities of employees and managers
• conduct in an emergency (emergency call, escape routes, assembly point, etc.)
• procedure for reporting accidents in the company
• emergency contact information
• first aid and emergency equipment
• procedure and equipment in the event of fire
• general, company-specific safety precautions
• smoking and alcohol policy
• use and availability of personal protective equipment
• safe handling of hazardous substances
• safe use of machines, cranes, and forklift trucks
• the company’s environmental requirements
• potentially explosive atmospheres
• carrying out manual activities
• wellbeing and hygiene
• safe use of tools and portable electrical equipment
• safety awareness, performance incentives, and behavior-based training.

As part of the Group-wide training program for HSE specialists and executives, a comprehensive training package promoting a more proactive approach to HSE has been offered for the first time. Additional training should also be conducted as and when needed—especially after (near) accidents. Any employees who miss a session must make up the training at the earliest opportunity.

Field Service and Management of External Companies

Customer service employees ensure that Linde forklift trucks are always ready for use. Repair and maintenance work is often carried out directly on customers’ premises. To ensure optimal occupational health and safety for employees when working off-site too, the Service Compendium and the Linde Service Guide summarize key aspects and guidelines for safe off-site work and provide specific advice for practical implementation at the customer. Besides creating safe working conditions, they also address the ergonomic design of workplaces and service vans.

External contractors are required to inform their employees and any subcontractors about the regulations set out in Linde MH’s HSE information sheet before starting work at a Linde MH plant. Whenever there is a change in personnel, supervisors must also inform new employees about the specific requirements applicable to the work or construction site before starting work, then regularly thereafter and in any case at least once a year.

Occupational Health and Safety Key Figures

The key figure associated with the sustainability target of reducing the number of occupational accidents and lost time due to accidents with lost time greater than one day is the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR¹). Going forward, the aim is to reduce this limit and hence the accident frequency by at least 5% a year.

[1] Number of accidents per one million hours worked that resulted in an employee being off work for at least one day

[2] Number of workplace accidents that resulted in an employee being off work for at least one day.

The KION Board OHS Award was created to recognize sites that demonstrate outstanding achievements in health and safety management. At the same time, the aim is to foster a culture of best practice and continuous improvement and raise awareness of occupational health and safety (OHS) throughout the Group. By promoting the sharing of knowledge between the sites, the award also serves as a platform for the transfer of specialist knowledge and best practices, thus helping to create a safety-oriented culture in all organizational units. Winning this award not only strengthens stakeholder confidence, but also underlines a site’s commitment to robust OHS management systems.

HSE certifications ensure that all relevant HSE data is available in the required quality at all times so that corrective action can be taken quickly if necessary. Feedback from the certification and audit process also provides valuable strategic insights that help inform future actions and initiatives. Under the KION Group’s current strategy, all sites are to be certified in accordance with ISO 45001. However, executives should be aware that this certification requires a higher standard than that specified by local legislation.

Regular HSE audits are also essential for the local organizations, as they examine the HSE management system at different intervals. These audits also ensure that all elements of the HSE system are observed on site. Internal audits are carried out regularly—on at least a quarterly basis—by a qualified individual.