Health and Safety

Achieving zero severe accidents

Wherever it operates around the world, Health and Safety remains an utmost priority for the entire company, its employees and its contractors. Alstom deploys ambitious programmes to reach a clear target: prevent accidents and eliminate all severe accidents.

Health and Safety improvement is key for Alstom, which is why the Alstom Zero Deviation Plan focuses on high-risk activities to protect all employees and contractors worldwide from the risks they may face.

Launched in June 2012, it focuses on the monitoring of the most hazardous activities and has strongly contributed to the reduction of the number of severe accidents.

Training

Alstom designs and deploys safety-training modules to answer generic and specific needs. For example, a dedicated training course has been created for employees at construction sites in order for them to have a better understanding of all the risks related to working in such a complex railway environment. Alstom is also deploying accident investigation training in order to reinforce its ability to identify the causes of events.

“Safety Observation Visits” programme

Launched several years ago, it is intended to develop managerial practices encouraging a positive safety culture and safe behaviour among all our employees.

Since April 2015, visits have been regularly organised in almost 100% of European sites and more than 3,500 Safety Observation visits have been performed by managers in Europe.

Health and Safety results

These efforts led to the achievement of significant results:

Local deployment

The past financial year has been marked by COVID-19 and its impact on all the Company’s activity as well as that of its supply chain. The Health and Safety team has been mobilised to promote safe ways of working on site and in offices globally, whilst maintaining business activity. 

Many country initiatives have been put in place in order to address the specific local Health and Safety challenges. A few examples below:

• In January 2018, Alstom launched its first company-wide Health and Well-Being Day to promote healthy behaviours at work and at home. 
• In 2020/21, a week dedicated to well-being at work took place from 22 to 26 June on many sites. In Greece, the week was organised in an original way based on the five senses, with one being highlighted each day.
• At the beginning of 2019, two awareness days were organised at Alstom’s headquarters in Saint-Ouen: one to promote well-being at work, and the other to raise awareness about sorting waste.
• In Romania, the “EHS Daily” initiative, a cross between a training programme and a team challenge, was a great success. 85% of employees voluntarily connected to a digital platform to answer questions about safety that were derived from situations in their own working environment. 98% of participants felt that the action had reinforced their understanding of health and safety rules.
• In the USA, a “safety hero” programme was conducted to improve the safety culture by promoting people with exemplary behaviour.
• Two employees from Sorel Tracy (Canada) were declared “Safety Heroes” under a North American program that praises employees for their exemplary contribution to the improvement of health and safety at work for their colleagues.
• Alstom Spain has initiated a global 3-year plan based on 4 priority pillars:

  - Health monitoring
  - Risk prevention
  - Healthy mind
  - Healthy eating, physical activities

• Alstom Qatar (namely the Al-Kheesa-based Supply Chain team) won a competition organised between several companies by the client of the tramway project. The ranking was established based on EHS criteria, such as the compliance of personal protective equipment, the reporting of near-accidents, or the number of incidents and accidents.