People

Occupational Health and safety

Strategy and concepts

Occupational health and safety management

GRI 3-3

The Mercedes-Benz Group wants to ensure its employees can work in a safe and healthy environment.

Whether it’s ergonomic workplace design, health maintenance programmes or occupational safety training, the Group’s overarching goal is to avoid health risks and maintain its employees’ health over the long term. Because only satisfied and healthy employees can realise their full potential – and thus contribute to the success of the Mercedes-Benz Group.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not the only reason why it is so important to have a sustainable occupational health and safety management system in place. The demographic transformation and advances in technology are also associated with new challenges. The Mercedes-Benz Group thus utilizes a holistic occupational health and safety management system that also includes a quality management system. The focus here is mainly on preventive measures that it continuously reviews and develops further.

During the year under review, the Mercedes-Benz Group strategically realigned its occupational health and safety management system and defined new objectives and targets. Among other things, well-being was added as an additional strategic area of action and defined within the Group for the first time. In line with the definition, the topic is divided into the areas of emotional, physical, social and financial well-being, to which in-house offers aimed at the employees were assigned.

Requirements and policies

The Mercedes-Benz Group’s occupational safety strategy includes standards for the design of workplaces and work processes. The goal here is to systematically reduce occupational and health-related risks. The Mercedes-Benz Group operates on the basis of globally uniform guidelines for risk prevention. The Group’s occupational health and safety policy, which includes the Minimum Standards for Corporate Health & Safety, as well as the occupational health and safety guidelines that are defined in a Group-wide agreement, serve as overarching, internationally valid regulations. All of these policies, as well as all applicable laws in each country where the company operates, must be complied with. (in Germany, among others, the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Provision 1 of the German Statutory Accident Insurance). The internal guidelines are all based on international standards and national laws and emphasize the managers’ obligation to act responsibly. Moreover, they underscore the employees’ own responsibility. In Germany, there is a supplementary occupational health and safety management policy which regulates cross-location cooperation.

The international corporate policy on occupational health and safety bindingly describes tasks, duties, necessary bodies and communication requirements for all controlled and consolidated Group companies. This policy calls for the creation, operation and continuous improvement of an occupational health and safety (OHS) management system, which is substantively based on the ISO 45001 standard. Various locations are voluntarily having their OHS management system certified by external companies in accordance with the ISO 45001 standard. The standards for safe performance of work described in these specifications also apply to external companies and their employees. The Mercedes-Benz Group regularly checks whether external companies comply with these requirements – in some cases several times a year.

In 2022, all the policies and requirements for occupational health and safety were reviewed and amended by the individuals responsible for the documents as needed. For example, the guideline on the handling of lithium-ion batteries and the procedural instruction “Accident processing by managers in the event of company accidents with lost days” was rewritten.

Organisation and areas of responsibility

Occupational health and safety issues throughout the Group are managed by the Health & Safety unit, which is part of Human Resources and under the direction of the Chief Physician at the Mercedes-Benz Group in Germany. The Health & Safety unit is divided into six centres of competence: “occupational safety”, “medicine”, “health management”, “ergonomics”, “social counselling” and “catering”. Each centre controls the processes by means of Group-wide policies which are continuously updated.

The respective occupational health and safety goals of the locations are based on an overall strategy, which contains the guiding principles of occupational health and safety, as well as the occupational health and safety strategy of the Mercedes-Benz Group and the results of audits and reviews.

At each location, the Mercedes-Benz Group has established corresponding committees for occupational health and safety in which employees can participate. Managers are responsible for ensuring that all internal policies and legal provisions on occupational health and safety are observed. The Health & Safety unit supports managers in the implementation of their obligations with regard to occupational health and safety. Each location defines the responsibilities and specific obligations in line with the local conditions.

Mercedes-Benz Group employees bear personal responsibility for health and occupational safety by carrying out their work in a safety-conscious manner. Employees have the right to withdraw from work situations in which they can reasonably assume an immediate danger to their lives or health. Safety risks and near-accidents must be reported to the manager on a location-specific basis. These are dealt with in the regular meetings in production and administration (Shopfloor Management). The Mercedes-Benz Group records information on occupational accidents and risks by means of its accident documentation systems.

Occupational health and safety issues are also discussed on a regular basis in various committees, such as the Occupational Safety, Environment and Health Commission, as well as with works council representatives and representatives of the Group. In addition, the corporate medical director and the head of corporate Group safety report to the Member of the Board of Management responsible for Human Resources on a quarterly basis.

Handling of COVID-19

In order to curb the spread of Covid-19, employees at Mercedes-Benz Group sites were provided with information on various measures and rules. In Germany, they were put into effect in connection with the Infection Protection Act. During the reporting year, the Group repeatedly reviewed and refined its hygiene strategy, which is based on risk assessment. Among other things, this strategy was modified in response to changes to the legal framework and pandemic-related developments.

As early as 2020, the Mercedes-Benz Group expanded its global accident documentation system to include an emergency documentation module for recording Covid-19 cases. This module includes an integrated digital reporting process for infections that enables the rapid documentation of all Covid-19 cases among the employees and thus a fast follow-up of possible contacts by the plant medical service and managers. By mapping chains of infection, the Mercedes-Benz Group was able to contribute to the reduction of the spread of COVID-19 within the Group. The new module for crisis situation documentation helps the Mercedes-Benz Group to respond faster and in a more targeted manner to unforeseen events such as another pandemic in the future.

In addition, the Mercedes-Benz Group supports research and science in order to promote acquisition of knowledge and to be able to facilitate the implementation of effective and sustainable measures.

Risk management

The Mercedes-Benz Group wants to prevent its employees from experiencing accidents or impaired health. The Health & Safety unit is therefore pursuing a preventive approach and assesses the potential risks of workplaces and work processes at an early stage. The Health & Safety unit operates a safety risk management system at the Group’s own production plants that is aligned with the Group’s Policy on Occupational Health and Safety. Health & Safety also defines instruments and risk assessment processes that are implemented at the local level.

In addition, a standardized procedure is used to determine whether the Group policy regarding occupational health and safety has been duly implemented throughout the organization. To this end, each site that employs more than 500 people or has a corresponding risk level is visited and evaluated approximately every five years.

Risk assessments are carried out in the following areas, among others:

• Safety and accident management
• Risk of hazardous tasks
• Risk of fire and explosion
• Risk of hazardous machinery & equipment

Digital risk assessment

Risk assessments are an important tool with which the Mercedes-Benz Group evaluates potential risks. The Mercedes-Benz Group is digitalizing parts of this risk management process using an online tool that is being made available all over the world. The tool is provided by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and was expanded for the company’s purposes. It shows the specific risks that can arise in a particular area of responsibility. The user then only needs to decide whether the suggested measures suffice to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. On this basis, the user then only needs to decide whether the suggested measures suffice to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. This risk assessment is then used as a basis for automatically generating instruction documents.

Uniform assessment of risks

The Mercedes-Benz Group assesses the risks of new facilities worldwide along the entire process – from the tendering to the acceptance stage – in a uniform manner and in accordance with defined criteria. The basis for this is provided by the Group’s safety concepts, which are implemented by the suppliers in accordance with the company’s specifications. Occupational safety experts support the planning departments from the initial idea to the standardised acceptance process for working equipment. Hazardous materials are evaluated and approved in the course of the risk assessment. The Mercedes-Benz Group also assesses the mental and ergonomic stress caused by workplaces and the respective working environment.

The Mercedes-Benz Group has integrated a contractor management process that includes an assessment of mutual hazards, including defined measures, as a fundamental component. These measures are then monitored by means of random checks. In addition, an instruction video teaches external companies about topics of relevance to occupational safety. Moreover, risk assessments for cooperation with external companies as well as control measures are digitised and mapped in the Mercedes-Benz Group’s tool for risk assessments.

Measures

Company health management and mental health

GRI 403-3/-5/-6

The Mercedes-Benz Group offers their employees in Germany occupational health advice and screening as well as measures and services from the company’s own health programme and social counselling service. The Mercedes-Benz Group wants to promote both the mental and physical health of its employees with its company health management system in Germany. This objective is promoted with the help of campaigns, counselling and qualification offerings, as well as with preventive, therapeutic and rehabilitation measures. In 2021, a Group agreement on mental health in the workplace was reached for Germany between the works council and the Group management with the goal of maintaining and promoting the employees’ mental health. Internationally, the Mercedes-Benz Group focuses on medical care and the coordination of pandemic-related measures and prevention strategies as well as ergonomics.

Preventive approaches are at the heart of health management at Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Mercedes-Benz AG and Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG – from job-related health checks and ergonomic workplace design to an IT system that facilitates the reintegration of employees with chronic ailments.

The Mercedes-Benz Group is continuously expanding the digitalisation in health management: It aims to make new digital formats available to its employees whenever possible and to expand the existing offerings. This will enable the appropriate services to be provided to employees anytime and anywhere.

Medical and psychosocial support

At the Mercedes-Benz Group, occupational medical care includes programmes and measures for the prevention of work-related illnesses and occupational diseases, as well as for the promotion of health in the workplace. In order to identify health risks at an early stage, it offers voluntary preventive medical check-ups for employees and managers worldwide that go beyond the legal requirements. This includes the "Mercedes-Benz HealthCheck” with integrated health counselling reintroduced in Germany at the end of 2022. Many comparable offers can be found at the international locations of the Mercedes-Benz Group.

Furthermore, the Mercedes-Benz Group offers all employees acute and emergency medical care as well as psychosocial care – this also includes immediate care for accident victims as well as emergency care for business travellers, employees on foreign assignments and their relatives abroad. This service is available 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. All employees can use the company medical services, the social counselling service and the basic services of the company health promotion programmes. The basic offers of occupational health promotion as well as acute and emergency medical care are also available to the Group’s temporary employees.

The in-house social counselling service advises and supports managers and employees of the Mercedes-Benz Group in Germany who find themselves in a challenging situation of change or crisis at work or in their private lives, or who are suffering from psychological problems or struggling with conflicts. This also includes counselling in cases of bullying, sexual harassment or discrimination in the workplace. Temporary employees in Germany as well the employees’ relatives can also take advantage of the offer. In addition, the social counselling service offers departmental workshops and coaching and training for managers. The social counselling service operates locally in the plants as well as online and by telephone. Its services are confidential and subject to the legal duty of confidentiality.

Measures related to COVID-19

The Mercedes-Benz Group continues to raise awareness among its employees worldwide and to point out the specific measures and requirements for infection protection.

Since October 2022, the company medical services have been offering booster shots (third and fourth vaccinations) with the newly updated Omicron vaccine. Vaccination offers were also made to employees at foreign locations.

Staying healthy

The Mercedes-Benz Group wants to help its employees to adopt healthy lifestyles and reinforce their sense of personal responsibility with respect to their health. All German production locations and numerous international locations have health centres on the premises, or cooperate with nearby health centres.

In these health centres and with cooperation partners, employees can for example take preventive action to avoid back and joint problems and receive physiotherapy treatment. In target group-specific training sessions, managers can observe their own health-related behaviour and develop a health-oriented management style. The measures developed by the company health care unit are scientifically monitored and evaluated.

Working safely and ergonomically

The Mercedes-Benz Group has defined an ergonomics strategy in a general works agreement. The strategy encompasses the following principles and goals:

• Continuously optimise new and existing workplaces with regard to health aspects
• Preserve the health and performance of employees
• Assign employees in line with their respective profiles and skills
• Reduce the number of musculoskeletal disorders through prevention
• Managers take responsibility for the health of their employees

In order to implement these principles and goals, the Mercedes-Benz Group focused on the following fields of action and measures in the reporting year:

• Publication of an action guideline: summarised overview of the ergonomic requirements that must be fulfilled in order to meet the legal requirements, as well the requirements of the Group
• Inform and train employees with planning tasks on the topic of workplace design and managers on the topic of ergonomics
• Ongoing redesign and improvement of workplaces that are not yet ergonomically optimal

With the aid of an IT system, the Mercedes-Benz Group evaluates the ergonomics of its workplaces. The system makes use of data that are relevant to the workplace. All newly created workplaces are already assessed by the Mercedes-Benz Group in the planning phase. In this way, it seeks to identify and avoid ergonomically risky workplaces. In addition, it creates job profiles that enable it to deploy employees with impairments according to their abilities.

Raising awareness of occupational safety

GRI 403-5

The Mercedes-Benz Group uses media such as videos, various information portals and online training courses to increase its employees’ awareness of ergonomics and occupational safety issues. It provides new employees with initial instruction regarding the safety-relevant aspects of their workplaces. They are subsequently required to participate in safety-awareness briefings that are held on a regular basis. The Mercedes-Benz Group has also developed special online training courses for certain work areas, for example, for the safety briefing of office employees.

The Corporate Safety unit offers Group-wide training for certain employee groups. These include employees who use the software for ergonomic assessment, as well as employees in the various planning areas for the legally compliant procurement and planning of work equipment with due regard for occupational safety. In addition, Corporate Safety regularly trains the analysis teams comprised of occupational health physicians, safety experts and works council members on carrying out the “risk assessment of mental strain” method at the German locations, as well as the international auditors on carrying out the “safety site evaluation”.

Furthermore, the Mercedes-Benz Group has maintained a health & safety information platform on the Social Intranet since 2018, which it updates regularly. This is where employees find all the essential information and rules regarding “health and safety at work”.

Reinforcing the safety culture

GRI 403-4/-5/-7

The Mercedes-Benz Group launched a new project known as “We Work SAFE!” during the reporting year. The goal here is to establish a sustainable culture of safety that will lead to a long-term reduction in the number of work accidents. Various working groups are developing measures
that will raise employees’ awareness of the importance of this issue. These measures include the Principles of Safety at Work that apply throughout the Group. The project also makes intensive use of internal communication channels and training programmes promoting a culture of safety. Reporting channels are also being further standardized and digitalized.

Healthy diet

Diet has an influence on health. As Mercedes-Benz Gastronomie GmbH is part of the Health & Safety unit, the respective specialists can work closely together here. In addition to promoting a healthy and varied menu, the focus is on reducing CO₂ emissions.

Since 2020, a simple traffic light system has already been showing employees in Germany which foods have a very good, fairly good or not so good nutritional value. Since 2021, there has also been a “feel-good” menu in all cafeterias operated by Mercedes-Benz Gastronomie GmbH, which mainly contains foods with a green rating according to the traffic light system. In the same year, a purely vegan line of foods was incorporated into the menu. In addition, the CO₂ footprint of the dishes is disclosed since 2022. Mercedes-Benz Gastronomie GmbH has also implemented further measures: for example, there are more low-fat dishes, the proportion of vegetables in dishes has been increased, the food is prepared in a more healthy way, and the time allowed for keeping the dishes warm has been reduced. In addition, regional and seasonal foods are increasingly used.

Effectiveness and results

The effectiveness of the management approach

The Mercedes Benz Group’s sense of social responsibility is reflected in its operation of a sustainable health and occupational safety management system. It endeavours to prevent occupational accidents, work-related ailments and occupational illnesses wherever possible.

An effective reporting procedure helps the Mercedes-Benz Group achieve its occupational health and safety targets. That is why all locations are required to report accidents and accident statistics to the Health & Safety unit. The Group has an accident documentation system at its disposal, from which it can derive standardised key figures – in compliance with valid data protection regulations. Based on these key figures, the Mercedes-Benz Group produces monthly reports showing the Group-wide accident figures.

Results

GRI 403-6/-8/-9/-10

In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the goal in the reporting year continued to be to contain the spread of the virus and maintain business operations. Various measures, which include safety and hygiene rules, testing strategies and offers of vaccination in connection with Covid-19, have been implemented in an attempt to protect employees as well as possible. Thanks to these measures, it was possible to reduce in-house infections to a minimum. From June 2021 to December 2022, around 81,000 initial and booster vaccinations were given at the locations in Germany.

Around 45,000 employees were reached digitally by means of offerings on various topics of workplace health promotion in 2022. For 2023, the Mercedes-Benz Group plans to embed the subject of “Awareness” in the health management using new training offers and initiatives.

During the reporting year, the Sindelfingen site obtained the voluntary ISO 45001 certification of its management system for the first time. Irrespective of any external certification audits, the Mercedes-Benz Group reviews the safety standards at its own production locations about every five years to check whether they comply with the standards of the binding corporate policy concerning occupational health and safety and whether a functioning occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) is in place. During the reporting year, the Mercedes-Benz Vans production sites in Düsseldorf and Ludwigsfelde (both in Germany), Vitoria (Spain), Ladson (United States) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) were evaluated as planned.

From the accident documentation, the Mercedes-Benz Group is able to identify, among other things, the causes and major types of accidents as well as the activities or equipment that caused the accidents. An effective reporting procedure helps the Mercedes-Benz Group achieve its occupational health and safety targets. In addition to its German accident documentation system, the Mercedes-Benz Group introduced an accident documentation system in 2019 that international sites and subsidiaries can use to report accidents. The Mercedes-Benz Group uses the figures provided by the system to produce monthly reports on Group-wide accident statistics in line with applicable data protection regulations. During the reporting year, the Mercedes-Benz Group’s production sites had an accident frequency of 4.8^{1, 2}. Every accident is analysed in order to determine the sequence of events. The affected units are also required to initiate preventive measures. Data on accidents from which other sites can learn and derive measures is sent to all occupational safety experts at all locations worldwide.

In addition to the German accident documentation system, the Mercedes-Benz Group introduced a system in 2019 that enables the international locations and subsidiaries to report accidents. In the year under review, preparations were also made for the application of the international accident documentation system at the German sites. The aim is to use a uniform system worldwide starting in 2023.

1 Number of work-related accidents that resulted in at least one lost day per 1 million hours of attendance

2 The key figure was audited in order to obtain limited assurance.

Key figures