GRI Compliance / Social
Occupational Health and Safety 2018
For Management Response click here.
For Reporting Boundaries and Methodologies click here.
REF | Status | Disclosure | Our Response |
---|---|---|---|
GRI 403-01 | Full Disclosure | Occupational health and safety management system
| Babcock HS&E Standard forms an integral part of Babcock International Group’s Business Management System (BMS) and sets the minimum standard expected of each Sector and Direct Reporting Country with regard to Event Management, Recording, Reporting and Investigation. It outlines the Babcock expectation for ensuring that each Sector and Direct Reporting Countries (Africa/Australasia) has suitable and sufficient arrangements for event management and to ensure consistency of approach across their businesses. Babcock has a legal obligation to record accidents at work and has mandated the use of the Synergi Life Event Recording Management System to enable this requirement to be fulfilled. In order to prevent the recurrence of similar events, it is essential that an investigation is completed by Babcock for every event and it is proportionate to the actual and potential severity. Near miss reporting is also seen as a vital component of the company’s incident prevention strategy. These shall also be reported on the Synergi Life Event Recording Management System. In addition to the recording and investigating of events it is recognised that there are various Sector and DRC legal and regulatory requirements to report specific events, externally to regulatory bodies of which they are obligated. For each territory that we operate in there are legal requirements (the UK’s Health & Safety Executive for example) to have a safety management system in place but such systems also assist in the operation of each of our business units; to improve working practices and reduce risk and incidents The risk management module is aligned with ISO 31000 risk management standard. All of Babock’s businesses and activities fall under our management system. Activities range from welding work on warships and submarines, aircraft maintenance, nuclear engineering, designing signalling systems and laying track for the rail industry. All types of workplaces are within scope and include the office environment, dockyards, aircraft hangars, onboard vessels and aircraft, vehicles. No areas of Babcock’s work is excluded. |
GRI 403-02 | Full Disclosure | Hazard identification, risk assessment, and incident investigation
| All business units/operations/functions have a duty to identify risks at point of operation and issue risk assessments and guidelines to be adhered. Risk assessments are regularly reviewed and refreshed as appropriate. Quality control procedures and risk review processes are in place to monitor the quality. HR processes ensure that only appropriate personnel carry out tasks that they are capable of and authorised to undertake. Improvements or changes that are identified through quality control or risk review are presented to the appropriate safety leadership team either at Sector level or Group, as appropriate. All Babcock employees can either access the incident reporting system directly through our intranet (which includes anonymous reporting) or via our health and safety teams or management to report incidents, hazardous situations and near misses. The Group safety policy highlights a: STOP WORK AUTHORITY – All employees are empowered through this policy to stop work if considered unsafe and challenge any person’s behaviour that does not match our expectations. All events under Babcock control shall be investigated by a Babcock member of staff or a nominated appropriate person, proportionately, thoroughly and effectively in order to identify the causes that contributed to the event. This should determine all contributory factors and the identification of appropriate, effective actions and improvements to facilitate corporate learning to reduce the likelihood of reoccurrence. Each Sector/ Direct Reporting Countries has an investigation process, which includes: |
GRI 403-03 | Full Disclosure | Occupational health services A description of the occupational health services’ functions that contribute to the identification and elimination of hazards and minimization of risks, and an explanation of how the organization ensures the quality of these services and facilitates workers’ access to them. | Occupational health services are available in all areas of Babcock. Such services are generally outsourced to the likes of Optima and Duradiamond. The services are publicised on noticeboards and as part of the occupational health surveillance programme. Surveillance visits are usually held within working hours on site via a bus or provided on site support. These too are either insourced or outsourced. The benefits and provisions of these services are publicised to all employees. |
GRI 403-04 | Partial Disclosure | Worker participation, consultation, and communication on occupational health and safety
| There are forums for trade unions plus a Group wide safety culture survey was launched in February 2021 based on our new safety commitments of Care and Learn. Each Sector holds a safety culture survey to consult and seek employee views. Our Aviation Sector also held a safety culture survey at the end of 2020. At Group level we communicate health and safety news via our Intranet, safety alerts and the group App Thrive. We are launching our Care and learn Safety Commitments campaign on 31st May Group-wide. Each sector has their own assurance activities and the Corporate Safety Leadership Team have assessed occupational health provision and understanding as part of their Corporate Safety Leadership Team audits. The Team also plans to change its membership to include a trade union representative. Throughout the business, each sector or site has some form of safety committee, e.g. Marine: Rosyth, which is joint with the Trade Unions to discuss and monitor health and safety issues. |
GRI 403-05 | Full Disclosure | Worker training on occupational health and safety A description of any occupational health and safety training provided to workers, including generic training as well as training on specific work-related hazards, hazardous activities, or hazardous situations. | For our own employees all appropriate task based training is available, provided and renewed as appropriate. Certain activities or tasks mandate training, which has to be proven or certified before individuals are allowed on site or before work can begin – for example the use of fork lift trucks; drivers need to be suitably trained and certified. Our employee managements system, Success Factors captures some of this training and records are held locally that can be audited. Other Group wide training in place via Success Factors for Display Screen Equipment for example. All records are used and retained in accordance with GDPR guidelines. The training of non-Babcock personnel is the responsibility of the individuals or their own employees but dependent on the tasks they carry out will need to prove that they are appropriate, trained and certified to carry out such tasks. |
GRI 403-06 | Partial Disclosure | Promotion of worker health
| Such services/offerings differ across the Group but for example; Employee assistance and Mental health assistance is a fairly global provision. Private health care provided, global Virgin challenge in some areas of the business and mental health first aiders and trainers. Any personal information is subject to GDPR guidelines and protection and either held by HR/O&D on the employee files, in Success Factors or locked away with restricted access – such as personnel records. Any findings from Occupational Health surveys are treated confidentially and there are processes for managing any issues or concerns that may arise. Before offer of employment certain roles will require a fitness to work exam to ensure that if any concerns are raised that the worker can be protected. If concerns are raised then we work with the employee to support them in terms of PPE, work aids, access to an employee assistance programme etc. With regards to non Babcock workers certainly first aid and emergency medical service will be made available following incidents but wider occupational/voluntary health services would be provided by their own employers. |
GRI 403-07 | Full Disclosure | Prevention and mitigation of occupational health and safety impacts directly linked by business relationships A description of the organization’s approach to preventing or mitigating significant negative occupational health and safety impacts that are directly linked to its operations, products or services by its business relationships, and the related hazards and risks. | Refer to GRI 403-02 above. |
GRI 403-08 | Partial Disclosure | Workers covered by an occupational health and safety management system
| All our workers are covered by the occupational health and safety management system. This system was implemented in April 2020 and is yet to be audited in full either by internal or external auditors. Some of our sites have obtained accreditation to the ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System Standard and are regularly audited against this standard by a third party. No employees or workers are excluded from the occupational health and safety management system. |
GRI 403-09 | Partial Disclosure | Work-related injuries
| We are sorry to report that this year there were 2 fatalities at Babcock. We recorded 145 severe injuries (rate per 100,000 hrs worked = 0.19) and 780 recordable accidents (rate per 100,000 hrs worked = 1.01). Type of injuries: Generally, our incidents result from manual handling, slips and falls and working at height activities but usually have a high consequence. Our aircraft flying activities contributed to the 2 fatalities noted above. The total number of hours worked is: 77,047,450. Our rates are currently calculated per 100,000 hrs worked. For April 2021 onwards it will be against 200,000 hrs worked. From 1st April 2021 Babcock are moving to the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) reporting methodology. No workers were specifically excluded. Refer to GRI 403-02 for how these hazards have been determined; what actions were taken or underway to eliminate these hazards and minimize risks using the hierarchy of controls and for any actions taken or underway to eliminate other work-related hazards and minimize risks using the hierarchy of controls. Omissions: The statistics for workers who are not employees are included in the main employee data – we’ll be able to provide the break down by FY22. |
GRI 403-10 | Full Disclosure | Work-related ill health
| Refer to GRI 403-09 for number of fatalities and work-related ill health. Refer to GRI 403-02 for how these hazards have been determined; what actions were taken or underway to eliminate these hazards and minimize risks using the hierarchy of controls and for any actions taken or underway to eliminate other work-related hazards and minimize risks using the hierarchy of controls. All hazards are known and mitigated against with the appropriate process in place and personal protective equipment provided and used. No workers were specifically excluded.
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