Occupational Health & Safety

The LOTOS Group undertakes various activities aimed at maintaining a high level of safety, minimising threats and raising the employees’ awareness of the safe work culture. The certified Integrated Management System in place at LOTOS (which also includes the occupational health and safety management system) covers all activities of the company, including all employees, workplaces and activities carried out by employees. The Grupa LOTOS also conducts consultations with the social partners and trade union representatives regarding occupational health and safety-related activities, including those relating to changes in work organisation and equipment of workstations, introduction of new technological processes and chemical substances and preparations, if they may pose a threat to the health or life of employees or the assessment of occupational risks associated with the performance of specific works. The Grupa LOTOS also develops cooperation in the area of occupational safety with the social partners due to meeting the requirements of the organisation within the framework of standard 45001, implemented in 2020 and certified by the Polish Centre for Research and Certification (PCBC).

The data refer only to employees of the LOTOS Group companies, without an option to make calculations for third parties. Internal audits are understood as audits in accordance with ISO standards, e.g. 9001. Certification is understood as the process of objectively verifying the compliance of the organisation’s activities by a third party with the OHS management standard PN-N-18001/ISO 45001.

The LOTOS Group features OHS Services — an advisory, control and opinion-forming body, operating in accordance with the applicable laws. The Services’ tasks include, inter alia, participation in occupational risk assessment, inspection of working conditions and employees’ compliance with OHS regulations and principles, providing the employer with ongoing information on the identified risks, along with proposing requests to eliminate these risks. The OHS Services analyse the OHS conditions in the organisation, advise on OHS regulations or the organisation and methods of working at workstations, present the employer with proposed solutions to improve the safety conditions. They cooperate with the social partners. They actively participate in ensuring an adequate level of trainings and proper professional adaptation of newly recruited employees. The OHS Services systematically improve their competences and qualifications by its employees attending trainings and benchmarking meetings and through exchange of experience with other production plants.

In order to ensure proper working conditions and health of its employees, the LOTOS Group takes extensive measures aimed, inter alia, at assessing occupational risk at workstations. In accordance with applicable laws and internal regulations, threats at workstations are systematically identified and occupational risks are assessed in terms of the work environment featuring e.g. noise, vibrations, chemical substances, biological agents, explosive atmospheres, machinery and equipment, nuisance related to work at workstations equipped with display screens. The risk assessment is carried out both for the workstations of own employees and for candidates for work, trainees, interns and contractors performing works at the Grupa LOTOS’s site. To this end, the generally available methods are used, such as Risc SCORE, Polish Standards (PN), recommended by the Central Institute for Labour Protection — National Research Institute (CIOP PIB), and for particularly hazardous works — immediately before the commencement of specific works by contractors.

The Grupa LOTOS counteracts health, process and technical risks. It implements procedures for preventing and responding to failures, hazardous situations and accidents at work. By systematically implementing appropriate control measures, we eliminate risks and improve safety. We pursue these objectives, inter alia, by:

• ensuring proper organisation of the work environment and ergonomics at workstations,
• systematically performing environmental research,
• applying the best possible safeguards in the following order: TOH (Technical, Organisational, Human) — collective at work stations and individual, tailored directly to the employee,
• applying the best possible process and technical safeguards (Best Available Technology — BAT),

• improving the system of threat identification and risk estimation in the human-machine-environment system,
• carrying out regular advisory, supervisory and control activities,
• organising practical training courses and thematic workshops to improve the professional qualifications of employees,
• raising awareness and involvement of employees, leading to improvement of the work safety culture,
• implementing a number of initiatives that go beyond the law, including with regard to supervision over contractors.

In order to improve the safety of employees’ work at the LOTOS Group, a set of Golder rules of occupational safety was created, based on applicable laws and internal regulations. These rules were established following an analysis of the causes of accidents, threats and hazardous situations over the last decade. They aim at reducing the risk of accidents and situations threatening employees’ health and lives, as well as building a high level of work safety culture and shaping the right attitude of employees.

An e-learning platform has been launched for employees. Thanks to it, employees have access to a range of obligatory and optional training courses. As part of obligatory training, employees of the LOTOS Group were obliged to undergo a training course in Golden rules of occupational safety of the LOTOS Group employee, periodic OHS trainings and trainings dedicated to the work safety culture and rules of evacuation from buildings. As part of the optional trainings, employees have access to trainings on health prevention, stress or teleworking OHS, etc.

At the same time, the Grupa LOTOS has place an Incentive scheme for employees. The aim of the scheme is to promote the values arising from compliance with the principles of occupational health and safety by rewarding people who submit the most interesting works on compliance with the principles of occupational health and safety, in particular those reflecting the impact of the work carried out safely on its result. Employees can also report observed risks or hazardous situations which should be eliminated from the work environment or other improvements whose implementation will improve working conditions.

One of the important elements contributing to workplace safety is a responsible employee, fully aware of the risks. Therefore, the LOTOS Group places great emphasis on preventive and informational measures. It carries out educational, training and preventive programmes aimed at building a culture of safety at work or raising employees’ awareness. The occupational health and safety training system is more than just obligatory OHS training courses required by law. It is also a system of diverse trainings aimed at specific groups of employees, organised both on-site in the form of practical trainings or exercises, using didactic measures such as fire trainer, CPR manikins, training defibrillators, and remotely, in the form of interactive e-learning games. Employees, trainees and interns shall the initial OHS training, in accordance with the contents and subject matter specified in the training curricula. Employees of LOTOSZ, regardless of their position and type of work, undergo initial and periodic trainings.

As part of additional trainings organised for employees on site, employees participate, for example, in exercises preparing them for emergency response, in practical exercises dedicated to providing first aid to adults and children, rules for the correct use of AEDs or rules for evacuation of buildings. Employees also have free access to medical consultations on occupational diseases and diseases which do not arise directly from their work.

The Grupa LOTOS has implemented, among others, a programme for skin protection of the employees, mainly from production areas, which consists of several stages. Each stage has a different goal:

• skin protection — application of skin protection measures before commencing work to protect the employee in the event of contact with various substances present at the workstation, which may dry and irritate the skin,
• skin cleaning — the use of agents for removal of pollutants from the skin surface after finishing work,

In cooperation with LUXMED, educational materials are also being prepared for employees on specific healthcare-related topics, such as heart and cardiovascular prevention or health during the coronavirus pandemic campaigns.

In order to minimise the risk associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group companies have proposed their employees diagnostic tests for COVID-19, so that employees returning from isolation or quarantine can feel safe and be sure to recover completely.

As part of activities related to the protection of the employees’ health at work, consultations and so-called ergonomic reviews of workstations are carried out for a group of employees holding administrative positions. These reviews are be carried out by practitioners and staff with knowledge and experience in ergonomics. This allows for the workstation itself to be properly designed and modernised, as well as for errors made by employees working in a non-ergonomic manner to be corrected.

The Grupa LOTOS ensures the safety of contractors and guests. Every person entering the plant is obliged to acquaint themselves with the principles of safe conduct within the refinery by receiving an OHS leaflet (for guests under an employee’s supervision) or by undergoing an e-learning training course on the General safety rules within the premises of the Grupa LOTOS and the Training course granting the authorisation to accept written permits. These trainings are tailored to the nationality of our contractors and are available in 5 language versions, facilitating communication and improving the effectiveness of these trainings.

In order to make safety topics more accessible and promote a healthy lifestyle, the Grupa LOTOS’s refinery in Gdańsk organises OHS Days on an annual basis. The 11^th edition of this initiative, organised in 2020, was a completely new event, accessible to all employees of the LOTOS Group. It was held online for the first time and lasted a week. During this modern edition of OHS Days, employees of the LOTOS Group companies were able to play a number of educational games, use online training courses or take advantage of individual advice provided by physiotherapists. In the case of the latter, the purpose of the video-consultations was, inter alia, to counteract work-related burdens (e.g. caused by sedentary work), reduce or eliminate pain, improve the posture and prepare the body for return to daily sports activity. The employees were also given access to a joint live training session with a personal trainer, participated in a number of webinars, among others dedicated to safety during teleworking, diet and immunity, relaxation and respiratory control techniques, energy management and care for one’s own well-being. The employees jointly participated in the project of identifying interesting bicycle routes and shared healthy food recipes. They won points and gave “likes”, while the most active ones received interesting “safe” rewards. In previous years, OHS Days involved e.g. diagnostic tests for cancer, respiratory diseases, dermatological, circulatory system diseases or osteoporosis tests.

In 2020, no new occupational disease reports were recorded among employees of the LOTOS Group.