December 30, 2021
PAO Severstal, one of the world’s leading vertically integrated steel and
mining companies, announces the approval of its new health and safety (H&S)
strategy.
The updated strategy is based on a detailed analysis of the current state of
the Company’s health and safety management system and reflects Severstal’s
focus on the safety and welfare of all of its employees and contractors, and on
encouraging them to take a proactive approach to these issues. In accordance
with the new strategy, Severstal’s primary public document on this topic, its
Occupational Health and Safety Policy, has been substantially revised.
The new strategy highlights the key areas which the Company will focus on,
including: risk management, with a focus on fatality risks, contractor safety,
deviation management, developing employee skills and changes to the health and
safety management structure. The the Company has developed an action plan in
each area to enable the health and safety management system to reach a target
of level 3 on the Bradley curve**, against the current 1.83.
Severstal has been implementing the changes reflected in the strategy since
the start of 2021. In particular, the Company updated its incident management
system, improved the recording practices for employee and contractor injuries,
and has stipulated that there will always be an inquiry into the root causes of
incidents for future learnings. These changes have already led to a noticeable
decrease in severe injuries (by almost 20% in relation to 2020).
Earlier, Severstal’s Board of Directors approved the Company’s medium-term
goals on health and safety, to be achieved by 2025. These include a 50%
reduction of occupational injuries (LTIFR) from the 2017 level and the
elimination of fatal injuries, as well as ensuring that all Company enterprises
assess their compliance with the international standard ISO 45001.
Alexander Shevelev, CEO of Severstal, commented:
“Safety is an absolute priority for Severstal. This is a fundamental value
that has guided us for many years and led to significant efforts to improve the
health and safety systems at our enterprises. An analysis of our results over
several years shows a progressive improvement in LTIFR*, from 0.96 in 2017 to
0.65 at the end of 2020, confirming our commitment to improving safety. At the
same time, we are not satisfied with this improvement, and have set more
ambitious goals, revising our H&S strategy to help us achieve our targets.
We carried out a detailed analysis of our existing systems, identifying problem
areas where significant changes were needed, and have already started to
implement the updated strategy.
We fully recognise that contractor safety management is the most pressing
area where we need to develop our performance and this is a priority under our
updated strategy. We have also extended our targets for zero fatal injuries and
a 50% LTIFR reduction by 2025 to our contractors. It is essential that we view
our contractors as our business partners and engaging with them on safety is
not limited to compliance requirements. It also includes their integration into
our corporate management system, motivation programme and safety training
programme.”
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* Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR), injury frequency rate. It reflects
the frequency of injuries resulting in disability, calculated as the ratio of
the number of cases of loss of working time and the total amount of time worked
in the organization for the reporting year.
** The Bradley curve is an indicator of the evolution of the safety culture
level and the efficiency of the system in the field of health and safety. The
scale assesses the transition from external supervision to a conscious attitude
of each employee to labor safety issues. Safety culture on the Bradley scale is
assessed by several indicators – adherence to management, procedures and
standards, responsibility of line managers, motivation and involvement,
training, audits, investigations, etc.
