2020 Sustainability Report

66 Social affairs Health management For us, health management is about more than avoiding accidents at work. Prevention, ergonomics and well-being in the workplace are all just as relevant. By involving our employees in our policies, we also aim to boost their health outside the workplace. At both our production sites, there is a special committee (comprising, depending on the site, production managers, heads of finance, safety managers, heads of HR and one employee from either production or administration) which sets targets and decides on any action required in relation to health and safety. However, the main priority is to avoid oc- cupational accidents. That is why we attach great importance to in-house training courses on safety at work and to the use of personal protective equipment by people working in production. At the Bützberg site, a total of 207 hours were invested in training about occupational health and safety matters in 2019, and in 2020 this figure was 126. In Endingen, 225 hours were spent on training in 2019 and 87 hours in the following year, when unfortunately most of the courses run by the trade unions were cancelled. As well as diligently investigating any workplace accidents that do occur, we encourage employees to report any near-accidents at work so that we can take preventive measures to eliminate potential risks. The Covid-19 pandemic presented new challenges in terms of safety at work. Thanks to our internal safety policies, there were no production stoppages in the 2020 reporting year and no above-average absences due to illness. The higher figures at the Endingen site were due to some long-term absences. Despite all the measures introduced by the company, some long-term absences due to illness or accidents cannot be avoided. The employees in ques- tion are supported during their absence by the HR department and their line managers, making it easier for them to return to the workplace once they have fully recovered. In terms of the well-being of our employees, we have set ourselves the goal for the next reporting period of helping people to strike a balance between their working and private lives. As far as is operationally possible, we want to offer more part-time working and opportunities to work from home. We have also introduced a credit of up to two days a year for voluntary work, giving our employees more scope for engaging in this. Further measures are still being evaluated as part of the new working time models and should come into force by 1 January 2022 at the latest. At the Bützberg site, employees who need to look after family members living in the same household who are ill are entitled to three paid days off work on each occasion, if they are unable to make other arrangements because of an emergency. At the Endingen site, we are looking into whether an in-house rule on continued pay is per- missible alongside the legal regulations on this according to the German Social Code (SGB) and the Nursing Care Leave Act (PflegeZG) (Section 2 PflegeZG, Section 44a SGB XI). Absences in days per employee and year 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Girsberger AG and Girsberger Holding AG, Bützberg 7.7 7.7 6.5 6.0 6.8 Girsberger GmbH, Endingen 12.5 12.0 15.9 19.3 19.2 Overview absences