Ensuring health and safety in the workplace is part of the Company’s duty of care towards employees. United Internet’s goal is to minimize accidents, sickness, and risks as far as possible and to promote employees’ health. The focus is on two areas here: occupational health management (OHM), and occupational health and safety including data center safety. The policies and measures described in this section apply to all of the United Internet Group’s German locations.
All issues relating to these two focus areas are discussed at the regular meetings of the Health and Safety Committee, both in relation to individual locations and at an overarching level.
Occupational health management includes hazard assessments, occupational medical care, health promotion offerings, and preventive measures, among other things. This last category is broken down into focus topics at United Internet. These are exercise, ergonomics, nutrition, and mental health. The measures taken in these areas aim to create a health-promoting environment, develop skills, raise awareness, and influence concrete behavior. The offerings can differ slightly depending on the segment concerned.
(1) This applies to the Consumer Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments.
(2) To date, this only applies to the Consumer Access, Business Access, and Business Applications segments. The plan is for the Business Access Segment to join the group soon
(3) This offering applies to the Consumer Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments.
(4) The survey was performed in the Consumer Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments
(5) The offerings apply to the Consumer Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments
Annual safety inspections in line with health and safety agency/statutory rules and regulations are performed at the Company’s German locations together with experts from external service providers. (6) In addition, reports are evaluated and implemented, and Health and Safety Committee meetings are held, at these locations. Health and safety activities are continuously enhanced on the basis of the statutory/health and safety agency rules and regulations.
Only authorized employees have permanent access to the data centers. (7) These employees are obliged to attend (digital) training, including on the following subjects:
(6) Business Access: Annual safety inspections in administrative locations with more than 20 staff; smaller locations are inspected every three years.
(7) This relates to the data centers in the Business Applications Segment.
In addition, courses and training are organized for those employees who are responsible for powering up and booting servers in the abovementioned data centers. The Company works together with Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft (VBG), the German occupational health and safety agency, to train safety officers for each operations team, who then attend regular courses.
In addition, United Internet is assisted by external occupational safety and fire protection specialists. An internal communications platform is used to provide employees with emergency manuals, work instructions, and the rules and regulations to be followed.
The objective of the measures described above is to reduce stress-related absences and avoid accidents at work. Work on pinpointing the causes of absences and accidents will continue in future so as to identify any other measures that may be necessary. The following table gives a breakdown of absences due to employee illness in Germany. United Internet is below the national average for its sector. (8)
(8) See the sector-specific statistics compiled by the umbrella association for German occupational health insurance funds: www.bkkdachverband.de/statistik/monatlicher-krankenstand for the telecommunications (61), IT services (62), and information services (63) sectors.
Absence due to illness (in %)
4.3
5.0
4.9
Number of accident reports (2)
36
21
35
on the way to and from work
4
5
6
Absentee rate (1)
2021
2022
2023
(1) The figures relate to all core employees in Germany.
(2) The number of accident reports in 2023 relates to reportable workplace accidents (absence > 3 days). In previous years, accidents involving absences of ≤ 3 days were also included. Consequently, comparability is limited. The change was made proactively in preparation for the future requirements of the CSRD/ESRSs.
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