Accident prevention and OHS training
[GRI 403-3] [GRI 403-4] [GRI 403-5]
Budimex Group strives to ensure that the Group’s employees observe the best OHS practices in their daily work. Training in this area is organised more often than is required by the provisions of law. The training programme is created together with employees, who have the opportunity to consult and evaluate workshops.
Within periodic training conducted by their immediate supervisors, employees can update their knowledge of the most important OHS threats and regulations related to the tasks they perform. In the Group, numerous campaigns were carried out, including on the health and safety standards in force at Budimex – both on the intranet (articles) and using standard communication tools (posters and leaflets distributed in offices and on construction sites). Numerous health and safety training courses were held for the company’s employees in 2022. More than 450 initial training sessions and almost 400 periodic training sessions were conducted. Training is also provided throughout the year as part of the Contract Manager’s Academy and the Young Engineer’s Academy, which include a separate module on health and safety.
Safety Week
In 2022, Budimex once again held its annual ‘Safety Week’. As part of this company-wide initiative, a number of activities were prepared to promote working with safety principles. First aid training sessions were held, as well as the ‘Extinguish Academy’, that is, fire training. The slogan for ‘Safety Week 2022’ was: ‘Don’t let your life end at work’. During the project, the following webinars took place: ‘Breast cancer prevention’, ‘Smartbreaks’, ‘oGrom safety information – meeting a former soldier from a military entity’, ‘Health and Safety Leadership’ and ‘Safe Driving’.
Safety in construction
is a project promoting the safety culture among the employees of Budimex SA The basic assumption is to change the paradigm of thinking about safety and to redirect attention from formal issues (legal acts, instructions, etc.) to people and their decisions and actions. The second important element is the perception of safety as a process that requires the everyday involvement and work of every employee, at every stage of work. The main objective of the project is to generate the attitude of co-responsibility for security issues among Budimex employees by referring to values, sense of personal agency, co-responsibility for one another and formation of good habits in the scope of thinking and acting. The project included: educational and promotional videos, webinars and one-page summaries containing key information.
Other health and safety activities
Information from the area of occupational safety has also been included in cyclical educational and development programmes carried out in the Budimex Group. As part of the ‘Young Engineer Academy’, online training courses dedicated to young construction engineers were held, presenting the most important aspects of safety management at the construction contract level, cooperation with subcontractors and practical application of this knowledge on the example of work at height (which occur in many projects implemented by the Group).
In the case of the ‘Contract Manager Academy’ – a development programme that prepares employees for the role of contract managers – dedicated webinars were organised on building a safety culture and leadership in this area, as well as new responsibilities for implementing safety strategies at the level of future teams.
In the first quarter of 2022, a ‘Step Up’ campaign was carried out on all contracts and investments implemented by the Budimex Group, with the aim of raising the health and safety awareness of supervisory staff and production employees, including through the implementation of Senior Management Visits, combined with meetings with local implementation teams and discussions on practical ways to deal with occupational safety challenges. The activity was aimed at triggering two-way communication and promoting partnerships on the subject between company management and the workers on whom safety depends directly.
In this way, Budimex provides employees and their supervisors with the opportunity to act independently and make their own choices, in line with the latest global practices. As part of the programme, health and safety training was held for all operators and drivers working on Infrastructure Construction Division sites.
In June 2022, Budimex held a ‘Vertical Transport’ campaign to reinforce safe behaviour during the work carried out in this area. An instructional video, posters, material packs and banners with the most important rules regarding vertical transport were prepared for the campaign. In addition, crane operators were given life bands as part of the project.
‘Health and Safety Leadership’ is an internal training course designed for Senior Management and aimed at spreading a culture of health and safety in the organisation.
Throughout the year, Budimex actively participates in ‘Agreement for Safety in Construction’. As part of the work of the Covenant, Budimex cooperates in a working group for the preparation of Safety Week.
In the Budimex Group, every health and safety incident is described both in accordance with the requirements of Polish law, but also in accordance with the procedures and classification adopted by the strategic investor, the Ferrovial Group. The Group’s internal self-regulations are more detailed than the provisions of local law. The Company also conducts in-depth analyses of health and safety incidents defined internally as HiPo (High Potential – Fatal Potential). As defined, this is any near-miss and accident that could otherwise result in real, serious injury/sickness, death or serious damage to property.
Conclusions from such incidents are discussed at weekly meetings held by the Group’s top management among several hundred executives across the company (so-called EIR, i.e. ‘Executive Incident Review’) and then cascaded down to the entire organisation as a so-called ‘lesson learnt’ and, in agreed cases, other actions are taken at the company and contract level.
The organisation has decided that not every accident in the same category is accompanied by the same potential outcome, so Budimex Group has focused on a detailed analysis of the most serious ones, which has made it possible to significantly reduce absenteeism and serious bodily injuries.
This approach not only allowed for a more thorough analysis and a better adaptation of the solutions to the companywide structure, but, thanks to the involvement of senior management, gave the right weight to the decisions taken and provided the required resources for their implementation.
Examples of implemented decisions after meetings for the entire organisation included:
- Mandatory use of TMA barriers for work under traffic, at the site of employee exposure
- Expansion of leadership training referrals to include employees of other Budimex Group companies..
In addition to the above steps, based on the incident analysis and in order to improve the company’s operations, working groups consisting of representatives of H&S and specific business areas were formed to introduce solutions for the entire Budimex Group. This resulted in the development of, for example:
COVID-19 prevention
As part of the Covid-19 prevention activities, Budimex Group employees were informed about the need to contact a doctor after the onset of cold or flu symptoms. In addition, during the year, at times of increased incidence, employees were reminded of the need to: wear masks in communal spaces, disinfect their hands frequently, limit group meetings where possible, organise meetings using remote communications and keep a social distance in faceto- face interactions.
Budimex employees were obliged to provide their superiors with information on the identified incidence of COVID-19, in order to keep statistics to assess the risk and take preventive action. On an ongoing basis, Budimex Group employees were able to use purchased and available tests, masks and disinfectant fluids.
Occupational Health and Safety Risk
The exposure of Budimex Group employees to risks depends on the nature of the work performed. In the case of construction contracts, they are mainly related to the risk of falling from a height or injury in contact with construction machinery. With regard to Mostostal Kraków SA, risks arise from the use of band saws and machinery with moving parts needed to process steel structures, transporting structures by overhead crane and loading and unloading them.
In turn, the employees of FBSerwis SA responsible for road and motorway maintenance are exposed, for example, to collisions with vehicles in road traffic. Another area of the company’s activity – waste management – involves risks related to biological agents (e.g. pricks, cuts with contaminated waste elements) and the risk of collision with machinery and vehicles on and outside the premises of the disposal facility.
All accidents, regardless of their effect, are treated in the Budimex Group very seriously. Every incident is communicated throughout the organisation with alerts.
In the Budimex Group, the nature of the work is very extensive, which means that many methods are used to assess and minimise work-related risks. Some of the basic elements are:
- Safety and Health Plan – which sets out the procedures and rules as well as the risks and their prevention prevailing on site;
- The Safe Work Instruction – which is the basis for determining how to carry out the work safely for the identified task and assessing the risks involved;
- On-the-job training with risk assessment – familiarising employees with the principles of how to perform their work safely on a given station, along with familiarising them with the occupational risks associated with its performance.
The organisation maintains a register of operational and strategic risks identifying hazards, their impact and ways of minimising them for the entire Budimex Group
[GRI 403-9] [GRI 403-10]
Table 22. Indicators concerning OHS issues.
Table 23. Accident rates for all types of accidents (accidents at work per 1,000 employees).
Table 24. Other health and safety indicators.
Main types of accidents (types of injury)
For own-force employees, the TOP4 are:
For Subcontractor employees, the TOP4 are:
In the Budimex Group, all incidents and accidents are analysed and then selected ones are assigned a High Potential (HIPO) of fatality, which is defined as any near miss and accident that could otherwise result in real, serious injury/sickness, death or serious damage to property.
Overturning of equipment:
Failure of lifting operations
Failure of lifting operations:
- Introduction of updated rules for crane operators, in conjunction with other General Contractors who are members of the Agreement for Safety in Construction,
- Updated rules for ordering formwork and reinforcing steel,
- Vertical transport campaign implemented from 27 June to 1 July.
At the same time, new types of incidents with fatal potential have occurred in 2022. These are.
Unintentional contact with utilities and systems:
Work-related road accident:
Budimex Group complies with its legal obligation to monitor employees’ exposure to risks of factors harmful to health.
The Budimex Group identifies the factors harmful to health in the working environment for which tests and measurements are regularly carried out, having identified the sources of their emissions and the working conditions that affect the level of concentrations or intensities of these factors or the level of exposure to these factors. As a result of such studies, the NDN of vibrations with local effects was found to be exceeded at the station of a track worker in 2022, without taking into account personal protective equipment (anti-vibration gloves).
The results of the measurements appeared in the studies carried out at the end of 2022, measures to level this risk will be taken in 2023.
In the period covered by the report, no cases of occupational diseases were identified in the Budimex Group.
Polski