5. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN BUSINESS, 5.7. Ensuring a safe and healthy work environment

[GRI 3-3] [GRI 403-1] [GRI 403-2] [GRI 403-3] [GRI 403-7] [GRI 403-8]

As a construction sector company, the Budimex Group regards occupational health and safety issues as particularly important. Regulating them appropriately and adhering to the rules in force is a key component of our responsibility towards employees, as well as other relevant stakeholders who expect us to meet the highest standards when carrying out contracts. Guaranteeing employees safe working conditions clearly follows from the Group’s fundamental values and has been directly included in our ESG Strategy 2023-2026.

Since 2019, Budimex SA has held a certificate confirming the compliance of the occupational health and safety management system with international standard ISO 45001, and Mostostal Kraków SA also got this certificate in 2020. ISO 45001 assumes the engagement of all entities participating in the project implementation process in creating safe jobs, which is an approach shared throughout the Budimex Group.

In addition to management systems, the Ferrovial minimum occupational health and safety standards are in force in the Budimex Group. Their main purpose is to organize the construction process taking into account the rule whereby each Group employee and a representative of its business partner should go back to their close ones after work. It is additionally stressed in the document that nothing should stop us from respecting safety rules for which we always have to find time.

All cooperation offers made to us by the suppliers of goods and services must take into account the catalogue of the occupational health and safety requirements supplementing the requirements provided for by law, and the appendix defining our expectations in this respect constitutes an integral part of the signed contracts. Additional information on our raising of standards in the supply chain can be found in Section 7.5.

In addition to the Ferrovial Group’s standards and Budimex SA’s internal standards, the occupational health and safety standards set out in the Agreement for Safety in Construction [1] of which Budimex SA is a signatory and a founder member are implemented. They are based on many years of construction practice of the members of the Agreement and take into account all project stages, from planning to construction works.

All subcontractor employees carrying out work for Budimex SA are covered by identical occupational health and safety rules and internal regulations as the company employees.

Occupational health and safety policy

The Occupational health and safety policy [2] is obligations of the top management of the Budimex Group to use experience, technical solutions and effective management systems to ensure safe and healthy conditions for carrying out contracts, which will effectively prevent accidents and cases of work-related ill health of the employees of companies and subcontractors and will allow to maintain a high level of labor safety.

The detailed guiding principles of the Occupational health and safety policy are:

• to ensure an appropriate context of the organization in relation to the scope of the activities conducted, including all the interested parties and the related risks and opportunities,
• to ensure control over and reduction in occupational health and safety risks in accordance with the principle of the hierarchy of controls,
• to monitor and strictly adhere to the legal and other occupational health and safety regulations in force applicable to the company’s activities,
• to ensure appropriate training for the employees of the Budimex Group companies in order to raise their commitment and awareness for the purpose of improving working conditions and building leadership at each level of the organization,
• to create conditions for consultations and joint participation in the establishment of common safety for all employees, by supporting initiatives aimed at improving occupational health and safety processes,
• to continuously improve the occupational health and safety management system by implementing the best available practices in order to prevent incidents and build an occupational health and safety culture.

Occupational health services

The Budimex Group fulfills its obligations in the area of occupational health services, by referring its employees for preliminary and periodic examinations.

The companies forming the Group have entered into agreements for the provision of occupational health services with Medicover Polska Sp. z o.o., which provides comprehensive healthcare services and, as a healthcare institution, runs, among others, the Outpatient Care Center whose facilities are basic entities of the occupational health service system. Medicover is entitled to provide healthcare within the meaning of the Act of 27 June 1997 on occupational health service and to conduct medical examinations of employees and issue medical certificates on the basis of the Regulation of the Minister of Health and Social Welfare of 30 May 1996 regarding the conducting of medical examinations of employees, the scope of preventive healthcare of employees and medical certificates issued for the purposes provided for in the Labor Code and other provisions of generally applicable laws.

Table: Workers covered by an occupational health and safety management system
[GRI 403-8]



Budimex SA contracts, and Medicover undertakes to provide, the following occupational health services:

• conducting preliminary examinations of candidates for work,
• conducting periodic and check-up examinations,
• issuing medical certificates for the purposes provided for in the Labor Code and in regulations issued on its basis,
• monitoring the health condition of employees belonging to specific risk groups and adolescents, persons with disabilities and women,
• analyzing the health condition of employees, and specifically the occurrence of cases of work-related ill health and their causes, and workplace accidents,
• participating in meetings of the occupational safety and health committee and issuing opinions for accident investigation committees,
• collecting, storing and processing information about occupational risks and the health condition of employees covered by preventive healthcare,
• carrying out preventive vaccination necessary because of the work performed – depending on the working conditions and types of hazards – in accordance with the provisions of law, with the exclusion of vaccine costs.

Additionally, employees have access to an extensive package of healthcare services including, among others, services provided by a psychologist, psychiatrist and other doctors, including dental services.

Medicover also carries out sanitary and epidemiological tests for candidates for work and the employees of the Budimex Group if such tests are necessary to fulfil duties in a specific position.

A referral to an occupational health doctor for an employee or a candidate for work is issued by the employer. It contains the following information:

• type of examination for which the employee/candidate is referred (preliminary, periodic, check-up or sanitary and epidemiological),
• position (positions) in which the employee/candidate for work is to work,
• health conditions at the workstation, and specifically the result of the measurements of hazardous and onerous factors conducted by laboratories (in accordance with applicable regulations),
• information on the method of work, and specifically a constrained posture or monotonous movements.

The employee/candidate for work is referred for consultation and examinations on the basis of a referral. Subsequently, based on their results, a doctor licensed to conduct occupational health examinations issues a certificate confirming the absence or existence of contraindications for performing work in a specific position.

As part of the above-described process, the Budimex Group is required to:

• provide information about the presence of factors constituting health hazards or onerous conditions, along with the current results of tests and measurements of these factors,
• ensure the participation of a Medicover representative in meetings of the occupational health and safety committee,
• provide access to documentation containing the results of inspections of working conditions in its part concerning health.

Healthcare services are provided in Medicover Centers, the Damiana Center and facilities cooperating with Medicover. The employer helps employees to arrange for occupational health examinations by contacting the Medicover helpline. If works are started under a new construction contract to be carried out away from large cities in which Medicover has its branches, the Group company requests it to enter into an agreement with healthcare centers located close to the location of the construction works in order to facilitate its employees access to healthcare services.

Occupational health and safety committees and the Occupational Health and Safety Executive Committee

Occupational health and safety committees with the participation of employees and the employer, which represents all employees, operate in the companies forming the Budimex Group.

At the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, additionally an Occupational Health and Safety Executive Committee was established at the initiative of the President of the Management Board, composed of company presidents, construction directors, branch directors and the director of the Labor Safety Department. It undertakes strategic actions in the area of raising the occupational health and safety level in the Budimex Group. One of its tasks is to develop plans for subsequent years, that is to set safety related goals for the entire Group.

A regular item of the agenda of the committee’s meetings is a discussion on the current occupational health and safety statistics in the company and decisions regarding lines of actions aimed at ensuring safe working conditions.

Employees at all levels of the organization are engaged in monitoring the safety status. Occupational health and safety services conduct safety inspections and a team of auditors monitors the correctness of operation of the occupational health and safety management system with the use of system audits. The compliance of the systems of work under contracts is verified through the Construction Assessment System audits.

Since 2019, the senior management of Budimex SA has been making visits aimed at building a safety culture at all levels of the organization. Over 600 of such visits were made in 2023. The aforementioned goal is also attained by providing all employees of the Budimex Group with access to the IT system, which enables them to report observations, incidents and accidents which are subsequently analyzed by the Labor Safety Department. The company puts a special emphasis on making employees report as many occupational health and safety issues as possible, since this allows us to focus on the most serious hazards and look for ways of eliminating them.

Accident prevention and training on occupational health and safety

[GRI 403-3] [GRI 403-4] [GRI 403-5]

We aim at ensuring that our teams act in accordance with the best occupational health and safety practices in their daily work. Training in this respect is organized more often than required by law, and its program is developed jointly with employees.

In the Budimex Group, each occupational health and safety incident is described in accordance with the requirements of Polish law, and also in accordance with the procedures and classification adopted by the Ferrovial Group, with the internal regulations of our strategic investor being more detailed than national laws. Our company additionally conducts more in-depth analyses of occupational health and safety incidents which are potentially fatal, i.e. are internally classified as HiPos (High Potential). According to the definition, it is any incident that potentially results in an accident or an actual accident which in other circumstances could result in real, serious injuries/diseases, death or serious material damage. Conclusions drawn from this type of incidents are discussed at weekly meetings of the top management of the Budimex Group, in a circle of a few hundred people performing management functions in the entire company (the procedure referred to as an executive incident review, EIR), and then cascaded throughout the organization as lessons learnt. Moreover, in cases agreed by the Occupational Health and Safety Executive Committee, other actions are taken at the level of companies and contracts.

The organization has decided that not each accident belonging to the same category involves the same potential effect, and therefore it has focused on a detailed analysis of the most serious ones. Such an approach makes it possible not only to conduct a more detailed analysis and to better adapt solutions to the structure of the entire company, but owing to the engagement of the senior management it has given an appropriate weight to decisions taken and has ensured resources necessary to implement them.

Examples of decisions taken in 2023:

• implementation of requirements concerning vertical transportation going beyond the requirements set out in Polish law,
• tests of fiber optic clothing to make employees better visible while performing works,
• introduction of obligatory signalman/hookman training for subcontractor employees.

As part of periodic instructions provided by direct superiors, employees may update their knowledge on the most important hazards and occupational health and safety rules relating to tasks they perform. Campaigns are conducted in the Budimex Group regarding the safety standards applicable in it, in which both intranet and standard communication tools, such as posters and leaflets placed and distributed in offices and at construction sites, are used. Many occupational health and safety training sessions for the company employees were held in 2023. In addition to the standard training required by law, the occupational health and safety module was also delivered as part of the Contract Manager Academy and Young Engineer Academy throughout the year. Approximately 200 persons working in specified positions took part in it. Figures concerning the participation in preliminary, periodic and specialist occupational health and safety training can be found in subsection 5.1.6.

The Kelvin TOP-SET training, focusing on analyzing root causes, was organized as development training for the occupational health and safety services with the aim of enhancing the quality of analyses conducted by them after incidents and accidents. A selected group of specialists became the internal trainers of this incident and accident investigation methodology.

Safety Week

In 2023, the tenth, jubilee Safety Week was held in the Budimex Group and in companies being parties to the Agreement for Safety in Construction. Its slogan was “I watch and don’t risk! STOP has power”, and it focused on safe logistics and transport organization, that is activities common in the construction market irrespective of the type of construction. With reference to the theme of the event, we equipped nearly 1,700 company cars with car packages, and webinars devoted to road safety used to gather over 300 listeners in a single session.

Apart from the main slogan of the Safety Week, a number of other actions promoting safe work were prepared in the Budimex Group. In their vast majority, they were local initiatives of construction projects and plants. As part of 191 contracts, we run a total of 572 occupational health and safety initiatives and training courses attended by nearly 6,000 representatives of the Group and 548 representatives of companies cooperating with us. Also an Internet occupational health and safety challenge addressed to the Group employees made its debut. It was taken up by 720 persons who answered questions and solved riddles relating to a safe work system. We also conducted 38 first aid training sessions and 26 fire protection courses. As part of the 10th edition of the event, an art contest with prizes was held, addressed to the Budimex Group employees’ children.



Other occupational health and safety initiatives

Labor safety information was included in a number of periodic education and development programs launched in the Budimex Group. In 2023, as part of the Young Engineer Academy, training sessions for young construction engineers were held, presenting the most important aspects of safety management at the level of a construction contract and cooperation with subcontractors, and the practical application of this knowledge, which was illustrated using the example of works at a height. As part of the Contract Manager Academy, employees preparing for the role of a manager attended classes on building a safety culture and leadership in this area.

In 2023, we continued also the Step Up campaign, the purpose of which is to point out areas with the highest likelihood of the occurrence of accidents and serious injuries. The campaign promoting the prevention of injuries and incidents was conducted with the participation of the President of Ferrovial Construction, Ignacio Gastóna, in all companies of the Ferrovial Group. A safety campaign relating to the introduction of machinery into construction sites and its maintenance was also organized. Films and other materials presenting the method of verifying a machine to be introduced were produced as part of it, which were shown to the Group employees and subcontractors present at the construction sites.

Occupational health and safety risks

The exposure of the Budimex Group employees to hazards depends on the nature of the work performed by them. In the case of construction contracts, they include mainly hazards relating to the risk of falling from heights, becoming injured while handling building machinery and being involved in road incidents. With respect to Mostostal Kraków SA, hazards are related not only to construction works, but also to work in permanent establishments producing steel structures. The FBSerwis Group employees, on the other hand, responsible for maintaining roads and motorways, are exposed mainly to public space risks, and also to hazards relating to the processing of waste in plants.

All accidents, irrespective of their consequences, are treated very seriously in the Budimex Group. Each incident assessed as potentially fatal (HiPo) is communicated to the entire organization in the course of an EIR meeting and through alerts.

Very diverse works are carried out in the Budimex Group and therefore various methods of assessing and minimizing work-related risks are used. The following issues are of key importance in this context:

• the safety and health protection (BIOZ) plan – defining the procedures and rules, as well as risks and preventive measures in relation to a specific construction site,
• safe work instructions – constituting the basis for determining the safe method of performing work for a specific task and for assessing the related risks,
• job instructions along with an occupational risk assessment – familiarizing employees with the safe work rules for a given position and the related occupational risks.

Additionally, the Budimex Group keeps a register of operational and strategic risks, specifying occupational health and safety hazards, their potential impact and the methods of minimizing them. More information on risk management in the Budimex Group can be found in Section 6.2.


Table: Indicators pertaining to occupational health and safety issues
[GRI 403-9]

^[1] They can be found at: https://www.porozumieniedlabezpieczenstwa.pl/standardy-bhp.html.

^[2] The document is available at: https://www.budimex.pl/pl/zrownowazony-rozwoj/zintegrowany-system-zarzadzania.