Work safety means constant vigilance

Paulig’s Vuosaari roastery was granted 2011 OHSAS 18001 certification for occupational health and safety in January 2011. The annual audit includes the functionality of the workplace safety action program, the occupational health and safety system, reporting of near misses, and safety in manufacturing facilities.

The risk assessment examined the entire manufacturing plant precincts, with interiors and grounds, from the workplace safety perspective. A similar risk assessment will be performed at the Tver roastery as well this year. The same workplace safety protocols and guidelines are applied in Tver as at the Vuosaari roastery.

The personnel are encouraged to check their working environs from the safety viewpoint and to report any defects immediately. In 2012, the personnel made 23 work safety-related observations in the Vuosaari roastery precinct.

These observations led to improvements included better grounds lighting, eliminating sun glare by providing curtains, replacing a door with a see-through type, constructing collision blocks to prevent the possibility of colliding with electricity cables with a forklift, eliminating conveyor track gullies, more access decks for machinery, and more detailed guidelines. The collection of observations continues.

In 2012, Paulig employees had four accidents necessitating at least one day’s sick leave. One of the accidents occurred in the front yard of the plant when an employee fell over while walking, another involved a fall from a bicycle while commuting, and two were in a bus collision while commuting.

In reporting absences due to workplace accidents, Paulig uses the so-called accident frequency figure. The LTIF rating, which is used by the Finnish Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is calculated as the financial year’s ratio of accidents involving at least one day of absence to the amount of working time put in. The ratio is counted per million working hours.

A safe working environment has always been a question of honour for Paulig. Our automation rate is high and there are very few manual stages in the work. It’s nice to work in a plant designed to be safe and enjoyable.
Erkki Enström, Workplace Safety Manager

Aiming for zero accidents

Paulig’s Vuosaari roastery is a participant in the Zero Accidents forum, which is a network formed by Finnish workplaces in 2003. The forum has been joined by almost 300 workplaces, which are united by a genuine desire to improve safety. The guiding principle is to learn from others, also across boundaries between business sectors. In addition to interactivity, the network provides information, tools and training to improve safety in the workplace. In 2011, Paulig adopted real-time work safety monitoring. The intranet has date-specific data on how many days have passed since the latest accidents.
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