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AAK ­ Responsible Growth 2012-2013 - UK

AAK Responsible Growth | 31 Employment contract type 2% 10% Permanent Agency staff 9% Temporary Employment type Full time Part time At-will Apprentice 75% 4% 3% 97% Employee category by gender % 100 80 60 40 20 0 % 100 80 60 40 20 0 Management White-collar Blue-collar Female Americas Europe West Africa Female Male Male Employee gender Safety and a good working environment Someone once said that the only thing we know for certain about the future is that there will be changes. This obviously includes our work at AAK, which, in the future, will streamline and rationalise in ways that usually lead to reductions in personnel. This places great demands on owners, management and employees to prevent accidents and illness. The most important thing is that the owners and Group clearly state that safety and a good working environment are high on the agenda. Next, it is important that there are an organisation, structures, written documentation and the financial resources allocated to a preventive work environment at our factories around the world. Another key factor is the education and training of our employees in security and safety issues. It is also equally important to ensure that, when our processes evolve and become more complicated and require fewer operators, personnel are trained. We must prevent not only accidents but also psychosocial workenvironment problems. In this context, it is important to emphasise that there are clear delegations and powers in the organisation for all employees. It is also very important for employees and union representatives engaged in safety to become involved as early as possible in project work, preferably during the design phase. Staff and union representatives have great skills, and modern, forward-thinking employers are putting these to use. The daily work with safety rounds, risk assessments in relation to changes, creation of action plans for the systematic work environment, etc. is a very demanding job that takes time and will never end. But the reward is the minimisation of injuries in our workplaces and seeing our employees thrive. We will continue to work with and develop this at AAK. AAK has come a long way with this work at the plant in Karlshamn. The owners and Group and local management clearly stated that workplace safety is a top priority. The introduction of so-called ‘orderliness rounds’, which the local management implements, reinforces this objective. The local security team is very committed and works hard to get employees to report work-related injuries and incidents. This led to 175 reported incidents at AAK in Karlshamn in 2012. Never before had so many incidents been reported in the company. This is a very important tool for preventing accidents. But, of course, more can be developed through the Safety Officer in the project, with more emphasis placed on training staff in new processing technology as it is introduced. Leif Håkansson Principal safety representative – IF Metall, Karlshamn, Sweden


AAK ­ Responsible Growth 2012-2013 - UK
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