Occupational health and safety

Occupational safety

Numerous preventive measures and guidelines are in place to ensure that staff from both HHLA and external companies, customers, suppliers and visitors do not come to bodily harm, which is a key concern for HHLA.

By using modern technologies, HHLA strives to achieve constant improvements in occupational safety. When introducing new work equipment and methods at HHLA sites, the company’s occupational safety organisation is closely integrated into planning processes in order to adapt them to changing conditions within the company and to reflect the latest safety-related findings.

A software-based occupational safety management system is used to monitor occupational safety targets and measures.

HHLA implements measures that promote safety awareness, safe behaviours and a culture of safety over the long term. A pilot project to promote safety awareness and develop a behaviour-based safety culture was therefore continued at one of the container terminals in Hamburg during the reporting year – despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Due to the pandemic-related restrictions, in-person occupational safety campaigns at HHLA sites were avoided where possible. Instead, employees received training and given handy tips in online courses on topics relating to occupational safety and ergonomics when working from home >, where they received practical tips.

In order to compile meaningful accident statistics, accidents at all HHLA companies in Hamburg are taken into account and recorded using a standardised reporting system. These also include accidents not directly linked to container handling (e.g. in workshops). The reasons for changes or fluctuations are carefully analysed in order to quickly initiate structured preventive measures.

In 2021, there were 91 notifiable accidents (excluding accidents when commuting) at the companies in Hamburg in which HHLA owns a stake of over 50 % (previous year: 79). There were also nine notifiable coronavirus infections classed as workplace incidents, as the employees concerned were verifiably infected at work.

Occupational health

As part of its health promotion efforts, HHLA strives to develop a workable occupational health management system which reflects everyday needs and to systematically integrate these measures into company processes.

Furthermore, with the aid of targeted communication and information strategies, HHLA actively promotes existing health care services, such as social counselling and flu vaccinations. This has led to increased use of these services by employees.

In addition, the coronavirus pandemic continued to pose particular challenges for HHLA’s occupational safety strategy in 2021. In order to address this, a coronavirus crisis team was established under the leadership of the Executive Board with a coronavirus task force based at the management holding company. The hygiene concept developed in 2020, which includes classic social distancing and hygiene regulations, mandatory mask-wearing and shorter cleaning intervals, was also actively implemented in 2021. Furthermore, measures were adopted that were tailored to the specific characteristics of the different working environments at HHLA. In order to keep the number of contacts to a minimum, the concept for blue-collar activities, for example, ensured that there were no more shift overlaps and that employees worked in fixed groups and smaller teams than before. In addition, quarantine managers were installed at all sites in Germany to conduct contact tracing quickly and directly in the event of an infection. Moreover, HHLA’s company medical service in Hamburg offered in-house Covid-19 vaccinations for employees and their families.

The rules regarding working from home put in place in late 2019, and thus before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, served as a basis for quickly and consistently implementing further remote working regulations during the pandemic.

As a result of the swift and consistent implementation of coronavirus measures, beyond the legal requirements, the incidence of infections at all HHLA divisions in Germany was kept to a minimum and HHLA’s facilities remained fully operational throughout both lockdowns. This underlines the efficacy of the package of measures.

The coronavirus task force also worked with the Group works council to define rules regarding the timing of time-off entitlements in order to be able to assign time off during quieter operational phases. In addition to the rules regarding working from home, multi-shift work was also made possible in administrative areas such as the management holding company.