Providing a safe work environment where all our Family members are safe to be who and where they are is an essential part of our core values. That is why our number one priority is cultivating a safety culture aimed at preventing accidents and a just culture that facilitates learning from incidents that might occur.
Safety First: zero accidents
Our ambition is zero accidents because we strongly believe that every accident is preventable. The ROTO Family Survey (2023) shows that safety and workplace conditions are rated slightly higher compared to the first measurement in 2021 (then called the ROTO People Survey). However, ROTO still lags behind the comparable industry norm, and we are ambitious to improve our performance in this area. All ROTO Business Units are working on reducing the number of accidents to zero, based on the Dupont Bradley Curve.
A psychologically safe work environment: zero tolerance of improper conduct
Improper conduct, such as bullying, aggressive behaviour, violence, discrimination and sexual or any other form of harassment, can have far-reaching consequences and may lead to physical stress and workplace stress resulting in illness. To prevent undesirable behaviour, we have drawn up a Code of Conduct and a complaints procedure. Complaints are taken seriously and handled carefully, and measures are taken if necessary.
The ROTO Family Survey (2023) revealed that ROTO is above the industry benchmark in terms of opening up about psychological safety. People feel free to speak up, to their coworkers or team leads, which is a good sign and helps us prevent undesirable behaviour.
Safety First: always!
With Safety First, we set high ambitions for a safe work environment. Together with DSS+, the Business Units are working to transform this ambition into reality. The foundations have been laid to progress towards a safety culture in which we continuously learn from incidents and mistakes. We believe that all accidents can be avoided; zero accidents is our end game. Step by step, the safety culture in all Business Units is being improved.
Rezinal proudly celebrated 2,036 accident-free days with no work-induced absences among our own employees at the end of 2023. Our commitment to safety is unwavering, and we continue to reinforce this through initiatives like the Safety Perception Survey conducted in collaboration with DSS. We firmly believe that the key to safety lies in understanding the factors influencing our safety performance, tracking progress through measurement and relentlessly pursuing continuous improvement, making safety the top priority for each and every employee.
Claudio Perelli – production manager Rezinal
ISO 45001 for all Business Units
By complying with ISO 45001, we demonstrate to our Family members, potential future Family members and the ROTO Ecosystem that we care about the working conditions and wellbeing of our colleagues. All Business Units of ROTO comply with ISO 45001, except for Rotocoat where audit certification is planned for 2024.
By attaining our ISO 14001 and 45001 certifications, we have enhanced our ability to effectively administer our integrated management system.
Martin van Woesik - SHEQ coordinator De Boer Staal
Safety Index: working on our ambitions
All our Business Units report and register unsafe conditions, hazards, near misses, minor incidents and lost time injuries (LTI). To measure the extent to which our policies lead to safer working, we register the frequency rate in our Safety Index: the number of accidents in the past twelve months per one million production hours.
Safety Index
Since 2021, the target for the Safety Index is 10 or lower. However, after the acquisition of Prestia at the end of 2021, it became clear that a level of 10 or lower in the short term was very ambitious for the whole of ROTO. Nevertheless, significant strides were made in Prestia’s safety programme, amongst others, resulting in 47 lost time injuries for ROTO in 2023 (2022: 75 LTI’s) and an overall Safety Index of 25 (2022: 36).
Staco and Rezinal realised a safety index of less than 10. De Boer Staal and Rotocoat followed this with 15 and 18 respectively. Prestia came from 124 at the beginning of 2022 and dropped to 84 at the end of 2022 and 54 at the end of 2023, which is – although not satisfactory – a great achievement. Reaching a Safety Index of 10 or lower and ultimately 0 remains a major challenge that requires our continuous attention and determination.
ROTO also measures absenteeism based on the number of absence days as a result of accidents, which in 2023 was 497 (2022: 405) for ROTO excluding Prestia. Including Prestia, the number reached 2,398, a significant decrease from the 3,532 absence days in 2022.
