Occupational health and safety

As an employer, Linde Material Handling bears major responsibility for the health of its employees. The Company depends on the willingness of individual employees themselves to make use of the packages offered by the Company for medical prevention and selective health and safety training sessions.

Enhancing the health of employees

The principles of health and safety for employees are well established in the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Policy of the KION Group. Regulations on these issues are provided for employees in Sales & Service in the Linde Service Guide. In 2012, Linde launched a comprehensive project with the objective of establishing uniform systems and processes, and the highest standards of occupational safety throughout the Company.

Following a review of the situation, a plan with a timeframe of several years was developed to improve health and safety in the workplace. The long-term programmes and initiatives are an element of this. 73 % of our employees across the world are entitled to health insurance – not infrequently beyond statutory requirements. Regular health checks are offered in more than 80% of the units. In 2014, all our employees took part in training sessions on HSE.

Lifelong health and safety

This initiative includes both health and safety. Linde has bespoke promotion programmes, incentive systems and comprehensive internal communication in both areas. This includes, for example, a comprehensive medical preventive package at all German plants. It encompasses voluntary, individual health checks including provision of advice by the company medical service and various preventive screening investigations, care services in the event of accidents, acute diseases and emergencies, alongside reintegration management. A company social counselling service also provides assistance for occupational problems and private issues.

All these instruments make a contribution to safeguarding and improving employees’ health. During the period under review, the health rate of Linde Material Handling was more than 96% and the objective is to continue increasing this.

In the year under review, Linde Material Handling recorded 8,362 lost days internationally as a result of 360 occupational accidents and 41 commuting accidents. This is equivalent to an accident rate of 17.04 per 1,000,000 working hours. In 2014, six out of eight production facilities in all the national companies were certified in conformity with the occupational health and safety standard OHSAS 18001 or were engaged in the process of certification. During the year under review, 201 internal and 22 external audits were carried out to review the safety management system at Linde Material Handling.

Accidents and health rate (in %)

Safety championship

Since 2014, the KION Group has awarded an annual prize for the best progress in occupational safety at the locations with the objective of further enhancing group-wide awareness for safety in the workplace. The criteria assessed are frequency and total number of occupational accidents with at least one lost day of work, health rate and site-specific initiatives for promoting health and safety. In 2015, more than 40 groups took part in the championship and the prize went to the KION location in Summerville, North America.