Concern for safety

Mining along with a host of related other activities are some of the most dangerous professions in terms of workplace accidents, including fatal accidents. This is why occupational health and safety issues at JSW Group must be treated with equal importance as production and economic results. When it comes to occupational health and safety management, the objective seems to be obvious, i.e. to limit the number of accidents.

Objectives:

• zero fatal accidents
• reducing the number of accidents at work (including accidents involving third party employees)

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In accordance with the Integrated Management System Policy, the management undertakes to provide and consult with employees and the trade unions representing them, the necessary measures and resources to shape safe attitudes among the employees, and monitor the hazards and reduce their impact on the work environment. The actions taken mitigate risk, ensure the application of safe technological processes and prevent accidents, occupational disorders and events that may lead to accidents.

The Occupational Health and Safety Management System promotes primarily a consistent execution of the agreed tasks such as: developing and announcing to the crew the OHS policy and objectives to show the commitment undertaken by the senior management, defining responsibilities and rights of individual employees in respect to OHS activities, ensuring appropriate training and motivating employees to engage in healthy and safe work practices, organizing an efficient OHS communication system, evaluating occupational risks, developing the rules for responding to accidents at work and implementing corrective and preventive measures related to occupational health and safety, monitoring and auditing the OHS management system.

Among key OHS procedures, the following should be mentioned: “Identification of hazards and assessment of occupational risk” (PZB-7.01), “Accidents at work, occupational diseases and events that may lead to accidents”(PZB-7.02), “Monitoring occupational health and safety” (PZB-8.01), “Actions taken in JSW S.A. in the event of a mass accident or industrial disaster.”(PZB-8.02). Other procedures outlining the principles of operational management, which are important from the point of view of employee issues, include the following: “HR management” (PSZ-6.01), “Internal and external communication” (PSZ-5.02) and “Procedure of conduct in the event of an emergency situation, e.g. epidemiological, biological or chemical threat”(PZB-8.03).The Occupational Health and Safety Management System applies to all JSW employees and has been implemented in the following companies: JSW KOKS, JZR, PGWIR, PBSz.

CONSULTATIONS AND COMMUNICATION

Employees participate in drawing up safe work instructions, the process of identifying hazards and assessing occupational risks involved in particular jobs, as well as in consultations concerning solutions aimed at ensuring safe technological processes.

On a quarterly basis, occupational health and safety commission meetings are held at JSW units. The commission is composed in equal numbers of representatives of the employer, including OHS personnel and the doctor providing preventive health care for employees, and representatives of the employees, including the social labor inspector. The task of the commission is to review working conditions, periodically assess the state of occupational health and safety, issue opinions on the measures taken by the employer to prevent accidents at work and occupational diseases, formulate proposals for improving working conditions, and cooperate with the employer in the implementation of its obligations in the area of occupational health and safety.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES IN THE OHS AREA

One of the strategic objectives of the Parent Company is to continuously and systematically increase the level of occupational health and safety at the Company's units. This objective is being pursued in the following areas:

• application of effective OHS prevention measures commensurate with the existing hazards,
• ensuring high technical level of the mines,
• curtailment of the “human factor” impact on the accident rate,
• maintenance and continuous improvement of a certified OHS management system.

The objectives of the strategic actions taken in the OHS area include, among other things:

• constant monitoring of natural hazards and working conditions and preventive measures in the mines,
• ensuring high technical level of the mines,
• maintaining a certified management system for occupational health and safety management as regards extraction, processing and sales of coal,
• maintaining the high quality of OHS training, with particular emphasis on up-to-dateness and practicality of discussed issues,
• raising OHS awareness,
• taking action to prevent accidents, occupational illnesses and potential accidents.

OHS ACTIVITIES AND INITIATIVES UNDERTAKEN IN 2022

Because of special conditions of work at JSW’s mines, as regards preventive health care for employees, an extended scope of preventive medical tests in the area of occupational medicine was in force. The extended scope of tests includes mandatory additional tests for preventing cardiovascular diseases for company workers and employees of companies providing services in the operation of JSW mines.

The “Crew head’s zone and more”, a training and information platform that received many awards, is in place and is continuously being developed in JSW. The aim of the platform is to offer a broad range of tools and information used to raise expand knowledge and improve professional qualifications. The platform provides, among others, information on attesting to qualifications to perform specific actions in the operation of a mine and consolidated versions of legal acts.

In order to promote the principles of occupational health and safety and to encourage employees, employed at JSW to deepen their knowledge in this field, annual competitions are held on the knowledge of OHS rules and regulations.

In order to ensure a high level of knowledge about OHS and appropriate professional qualifications of employees, at all the JSW units, the plan of OHS training as well as training and courses to raise qualifications was implemented.

In 2022, the Company finished the work on an e-learning platform for periodic OHS training for specified groups of employees in the form of self-learning managed using means of electronic communication and Internet.

By decision of the JSW Management Board, as of 19 December 2022, training and qualification improvement courses for JSW employees are provided by JSW Szkolenie i Górnictwo.

In 2022, the JSW Management Board approved the results of the “JSW S.A. Virtual Mines” project in the form of a film entitled “360º Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa Mines.” Thanks to the app available on JSW's website you can view the Company’s representative facilities and locations, creating a realistic picture of a coal mine. The “360⁰ JSW Mines” app is the first such solution in Poland in respect to the propagation of knowledge on coal mines and threats that occur in the mines.

In order to raise employees' knowledge and awareness of OHS, JSW has entered into an agreement on conducting a Training Course covering key elements of the principles of dealing with emergency situations (explosion of methane, coal dust) and the psychological aspects of the reaction of those affected by situations of extreme stress and the principles of first aid during at such events. Under the contract, 520 employees of JSW's mines have been trained.

In order to take action in the field of employee health protection aimed to determine the existence of correlations between working environment conditions in JSW's units and the potential incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis, an agreement was concluded for a study entitled: “Assessment of the impact of environmental conditions prevailing in JSW S.A.'s mines on the risk of tuberculosis in underground workers.” Under the agreement, 240 employees at the Company's units have been tested.

INJURIES SUFFERED

In hard coal mines, in connection with the special nature of mining conditions, workers are exposed to harmful and health-threatening factors found in the work environment. In JSW mines, among present and former workers, the most frequently diagnosed occupational disease is pneumoconiosis (black lung disease). Other diseases, such as occupational hearing loss, chronic diseases of the musculoskeletal system, hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), have been eliminated or limited to incidental cases. In 2022, JSW reported 49 cases of occupational disease, 48 of which were pneumoconiosis and 1 case of occupational hearing loss. By comparison, in 2021, JSW reported 53 cases of occupational disease, including 40 cases in former employees, of which 48 were pneumoconiosis, 4 cases of occupational hearing loss and 1 case of chronic bronchitis. To reduce the exposure of workers at JSW mines to factors causing occupational diseases, prevention programs are conducted in cooperation with the Institute of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health in Sosnowiec, and mine OHS services and physicians providing health care services in the area of occupational medicine, to prevent occupational hearing loss and pneumoconiosis in the mines.

In the remaining companies, activities in the OHS area were conducted in accordance with the applicable laws and individually adopted internal regulations and procedures.

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