Back in 2007, Carlsberg Polska devised a new preventative approach towards workplace safety in the breweries. It commenced with "Golden Rules of Safety" awareness campaign (2007), and was followed up with an enhanced near-miss reporting scheme ( within Health and Safety, 'near-miss' refers to the identification of situations that can potentially result in an accident and make improvements before an actual happen takes place), an employee safety contest (2008, with an LCD being awarded as the grand prize for near-miss awareness). In addition, over 100 000 EUR was spent on investing in improvements to Health and Safety, and the message received further reinforcement from the internal "C-Lean" programme, which emphasized management commitment, persistent presence in reporting and reviewing health and safety as well as a focus on near-miss and incremental improvement.
Background and outcomes
It is essential to provide more training and influence mindsets and behaviours firstly in the workplace, which will hopefully translate into raising awareness outside of the workplace in the communities of our employees.
An increase in the safety incidents prompted Carlsberg Polska's to implement the new safety programme. Since the institution of the accident reduction program and an increased focus on health and safety in the brewery, accident rates and severity have fallen, with only eight accidents in 2009, and a 50% reduction in the average duration of accident related sick-leave. The largest amount of progress was achieved in the packaging area, which formerly was reported a high number of injuries than other functions. Near-miss accident reporting started three years ago, and recorded over 100 cases in 2009 with a big number of kaizen-type improvement proposals based on these results.
In tandem with workplace safety improvements the company has continued safe driving education for corporate fleet users and introduced voluntary first aid training for employees. Safe driving education has resulted in a substantial reduction of employee-related accidents on the road. Training in first aid has not only addressed the social problem of first aid preparedness in the workplace, but it also has the added benefit of equipping Carlsberg Polska's employees with the necessary skills to be able to perform first aid in private occasions, if required.
Ensuring all workers, irrespective of location, enjoy the same health and safety standards is something the Carlsberg Group is working together as a whole to achieve. All majority-owned Carlsberg Group companies are required to implement our new Health & Safety policy in their daily work. Furthermore, each and every Carlsberg Group company is required to develop a continuous H&S improvement programme and annual performance plan to reinforce their commitment to improving safety performance.