Occupational safety and health

occupational safety and safety

Isavia has in place an occupational safety and health policy covering all the operations of the company based on the values and overall strategy of Isavia. Isavia undertakes to be a role model in safety, health and occupational issues by promoting a safe and healthy work environment for those who work in and visit the operating units of the company. The policy is both intended to prevent accidents to people and also to monitor the facilities provided to employees to ensure a healthy work environment. The CEO approves the policy, and Chief officers are responsible for executing the policy.

Occupational safety and health governance is part of Isavia’s quality system. During the year, we followed up on the applicable ISO45001 certification for some of the operation of Keflavík Airport. This work has resulted in increased security awareness within the entire company. The health and safety of employees is of paramount importance within the company, and every effort is made to analyse risks and take preventative measures. Extensive work was undertaken to increase safety awareness in daily work within the company, and for example, health and safety information was sent to all employees during Isavia’s Safety Week. As before, the focus was on employees reporting all accidents, near misses or conditions that can cause accidents, as well as reminding everyone that we are all responsible for safety issues within the company.

The year saw changes made to the organisation of health and safety as well as security and co-ordination, as their management was transferred to a single division, i.e. Services and Operations (ÞOR). This makes it possible to engage in more targeted efforts regarding these issues for the entire company. In addition, a harmonised health and safety manual was issued in Áttavitinn, Isavia’s operations manual. Psychological aspects of health and safety, however, remain within the purview of the Human Resources Department. ÞOR employs an occupational safety and health representative who is responsible for recording accidents and incidents and for reviewing investigation reports.

The number of reported work accidents decreased last year from 65 in 2019 to 39 in 2020, whereof serious accidents (absence accidents) fell from 19 to 4 in 2020. The scope of reports indicates that the importance paid to employees reporting accidents and near misses has paid off. This means that it is possible to concentrate on employing preventative measures and improvements.

Isavia’s main goal continues to be to reduce the number of accidents in the workplaces of Isavia. In 2021, we plan to co-ordinate accident reporting, simplify registrations and to make them more user friendly. This will simplify processing and follow-up in the safety management system of Isavia Opscom.

A mandatory Health and Safety Committee is operated with members coming from across the company. The Committee consists of both Safety Officers who are appointed to the Committee by Isavia and Safety Stewards who represent the employees. The Chairman of the Committee is the Health and Safety Officer of Isavia and is responsible for organising its meetings. The Safety Committee is responsible for reviewing the status of non-conformities and remedies and examining accidents and reports as well as the reports of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. The Safety Committee is intended to promote the safety awareness of employees through training and education and ensure compliance with laws and regulations applicable to the operation. The Committee was of the opinion that it was important that Committee members were more involved in the health and safety issues of the company, e.g. in relation to risk assessments.

Work related injuries GRI 403-9

Isavia has a monitoring plan for health aspects in locations that have been considered especially sensitive after a risk assessment, and they are examined with respect to noise, air quality and vibration. One aspect of promoting a safe and healthy working environment was to offer employees informative education on health and wellbeing in the workplace and information on Covid-19.

Registrations of accidents and near misses are through the Isavia intranet and, for external parties, the website of Keflavík Airport. The Health and Safety Officer is responsible for maintaining a record of these incidents and notifying those responsible for improvements as appropriate. All incidents are cause analysed. This is to try to find the root of the problem to make it possible to respond and prevent the incident from happening again. Isavia employees are under obligation to provide notifications of any accidents, and during investigations, just culture is maintained.

Isavia uses S5 database to manage all non-conformities and opportunities for improvement that relate to occupational safety and health. Internal audits of workplace safety and occupational health are regularly performed, and an annual maintenance assessment is performed by an external party to maintain ISO45001 certification.

safety week

The Isavia Safety Day was held in October. Due to present conditions, the arrangements were somewhat different. Instead of workplace visits, lectures or participating in disaster scenarios, employees were invited to view electronic education/lectures in which different issues between days in the week were addressed.
Attention was paid to the term safety in its widest sense, i.e. taking into consideration workplace health and safety, information security, safety awareness and to what extent employee wellbeing was important to ensure safety consciousness, communications and safe operation.

The educational material was sourced from a number of sources, from experts outside the company, new material on occupational health and safety and safety awareness was sent to all employees and work was carried out with experts within the company as regards disseminating information, e.g. as regards information security.
During the Safety Week, moreover, the focus was also on the importance of safety notifications and the participation of all employees.

Supervisors were encouraged to discuss safety issues at the beginning of all meetings during the Safety Week. Participation during the Safety Week was good, and both supervisors and employees were involved in the events on offer.
It is important for Isavia that everyone pay proper attention to safety issues, as incidents that occur have the potential to have extensive negative effects on the company together with the fact that the goal of all who work for Isavia or in its workplaces is to come home healthy at the end of the working day.

The operation of machines and vehicles as well as driving practices were two of the aspects that Isavia’s safety team addressed during the year. The team prepared educational material on the use of seat belts and updated applicable rules on the use of seat belts within Keflavík Airport.

The goal of the informational material was to increase driver awareness regarding the importance of always using seat belts, including while driving within the airport, as well as increasing safety awareness and preventing accidents.
Particular focus was directed toward collaboration with stakeholders, and educational material was distributed to them as a part of the drive to increase safety awareness during Isavia’s Safety Week.