Safe working conditions, protection of health and lives of employees of the Company and its contractors are the key corporate values for LUKOIL Group.
The HSE Policy includes the Company's commitment to require employees of LUKOIL Group and contracted personnel to abide by safety rules, take up safety trainings and drills and consistently develop their qualifications.
Aiming to decrease accidents at work rates, the Company seeks to:
improve working conditions across LUKOIL Group companies and contractors and as a result to decrease rates of accidents at works and occupational diseases;
mitigate risks of emergencies, accidents, fires, etc. at the facilities of LUKOIL Group's companies.
To prevent accidents at work, the Company regularly identifies risks in line with the corporate standard and, taking measures to manage these risks, makes steps to guarantee health and safety. Accident and injury rates are communicated to staff employees and contracted personnel. In addition, the Company carries out targeted work with contractors in terms of compliance with HSE requirements throughout the term of contractual relations, including annual reviews of HSE condition and compliance with corporate requirements
If an accident occurs, LUKOIL Group companies have to respond in a manner, envisaged by laws of the countries where the accident happened, and by corporate standards that request
immediate notification on all occurrences, including accidents with contracted personnel;
registration of accident-related data in the corporate safety information system;
investigations, analysis of circumstances and causes of accidents.
The Company regularly inspects its counteragents for their health and safety compliance throughout the contract period.
Communicated to LUKOIL Group companies and PJSC LUKOIL, these findings are discussed at LUKOIL's BoD HSE Committee meetings and during Safety Days, attended by representatives of trade unions and major contractors. Analyses of accidents, including those with contractors' employees, are included in the annual HSE report, reviewed by the Management Committee and the Board of Directors of PJSC LUKOIL.
The findings are also used to plan and implement new measures to contribute to prevention and/or mitigation of potential damage under similar circumstances.
Determination of hazards, evaluation of risks, and application of governance measures to eliminate hazards and minimize HSE risks across the LUKOIL Group take place in accordance with the corporate standards STO LUKOIL 1.6.6-2016 "Health, Safety, and Environment Management System. Managing Risks and Environmental Aspects", and STO LUKOIL 1.6.8-2016 "Health, Safety, and Environment Management System. Activity Planning" (with regard to risk management planning).
The efficiency of the said processes is reviewed as part of internal audits conducted under STO LUKOIL 1.6.12-2016 "Health, Safety, and Environment Management System. Auditing Procedure", or as part of annual LUKOIL Group HSE reports submitted to the LUKOIL Management Committee.
The procedures for alerting the personnel to any potential hazards, or near-accidents that are workflow-related, are governed by local regulations of the LUKOIL Group entities.
The right of the personnel to refuse to perform their professional duties, if such performance in their opinion is potentially life threatening or could lead to injuries, is formalized in cl. 6.1.9 of the Agreement between the employer and trade union association of Public Joint Stock Company LUKOIL Oil Company for years 2021 through 2023.
The Company acknowledges that an accident represents a realization of HSE risks and may be exhibitive of flaws inherent in the HSE management system. This is the reason why looking into and analyzing incident causes, taking into account lessons learned, and developing action plans to prevent such incidents in future are crucial components of the risk management system.
Accidents are investigated into in accordance with STO LUKOIL 1.6.13 and STO LUKOIL 1.6.14. Accident investigation involves re-evaluation of HSE risks to avert recurrence of similar accidents in the future and avoid substantial damage.
The findings of risk evaluation carried out as part of the accident investigation process are used in the planning and deployment of required activities designed to avert similar accidents and/or minimize potential damage.
Fully complying with the legislation in terms of guarantees and compensations, to which employees are entitled, the Company takes up additional commitments under agreements with the trade union association.
According to a special working conditions appraisal, the Company compensates harmful work environment, guaranteeing shorter workweeks, additional paid leaves, higher salaries depending on the degree of harm to health, working conditions produce. A special paragraph of the agreement establishes deterioration of compensations to employees, provided with these compensations as of the date of a law on special assessment came into force, as inadmissible, unless working conditions are upgraded for these employees.
Other compensations, received by LUKOIL employees, include:
quality, certified working clothing, footwear and other personal protection equipment, provided on the employer's account;
milk and other equivalent food products, health and preventive products, washing and decontaminating agents for free and in line with effective rates;
supplies of potable water to working places and sparkling salty water to hot shops;
mandatory pre-employment, regular and advanced medical examinations and extraordinary medical examinations upon employees' requests and medical recommendations on the employer's account, job and average pay protected leaves guaranteed and travel expenses to occupational health centers covered.
Before new employees proceed to work, they attend pre-employment HSE orientation sessions to familiarize themselves with:
harmful substances used in production processes,
harmful substances and industrial hazards at working place;
health risks and special assessment of working conditions;
compensations and personal protection equipment;
causes of accidents at work.
The Company is consistent in its effort to improve working conditions. Special assessment of working conditions, that replaced the earlier available certification of working places against working conditions, is the basic tool to assess working conditions in Russia, today. A package of measures to improve working conditions, introduced in recent years, provided for a steady decrease in the number of employees working in harmful conditions.
- Summarized SWA results in terms of classes (sub-classes) of workplace environments in PJSC LUKOIL’s Central Office
Management of occupational health risks forms the foundation of the corporate health monitoring system. The risks management paradigm helps identify typical threats to health (increased noise, vibration, chemical substances, intensity of labor, etc.). If risks, defined on a LUKOIL Group's company level are assessed as significant, the Company proceeds to develop measures to control these risks and mitigate their impact.
The Company has appointed a health ambassador, who consults employees on health protection together with trade unions.
PJSC LUKOIL operational units monitor indices that are characteristic of working conditions. The findings help draft priority proposals on how to improve working conditions with regard to major affecting factors and how to rationalize work and rest schedule. These proposals are included in the Annual Report to PJSC LUKOIL Management Committee.
Financing all necessary health protection measures, the Company allocates funds for voluntary medical insurances, infrastructure (medical stations and health posts), preventive measures, sports and leisure. Medical services (first aid, preventive care, epidemic prevention) are available at onsite medical facilities. Over one hundred medical offices, pre-trip examination rooms, paramedic stations and physician offices, located in the immediate vicinity to working places, provide easier access to health care and first aid treatment.
Committed to privacy, the Company has no access to personal medical details. Medical organizations rendering health services under voluntary medical insurance policies do not communicate this sensitive information to any of LUKOIL Group companies.
The Company provides all essential health care services as required by the legislation. Employees of all LUKOIL Group's companies undergo mandatory pre-employment and regular medical examinations, their procedures, checkup scopes and medical specialists prescribed in line with the Russian legislation. All employees, working in harmful or hazardous conditions, must take medical examinations in designated medical centers once in every five years. Employees, working with sources of increased danger, undergo mandatory psychiatric evaluation at least once in every five years.
Rarely if ever have LUKOIL Group's employees occupational diseases. The only facility where arduous working conditions still exist is LUKOIL-Komi's oil mine. LUKOIL-Komi takes actions to improve working conditions in oil mines, and
commissions new ventilations systems;
purchases equipment that contacts with vibration sources;
installs automated equipment;
purchases special purpose personal protection equipment.
Recognizing the importance of early detection of employees, prone to occupational diseases, and their rehabilitation, the Company switches them to operations with no occupational hazards.
Willing to raise awareness of health protection, the Company has appointed a health ambassador, who, joining his efforts with the International Association of Trade Union Organizations of PJSC LUKOIL (IATUO) and LUKOIL Group's trade unions, regularly consults employees on health protection.
Employees can contribute to improvements in the HSE management system, express opinions and ask questions through their authorized HSE representatives, through union and joint HSE committees, and during visits by HSE technical inspectors. The rights of employees to participate in improving the HSE management system are stipulated in the Agreement between the Employer and Trade Union of PJSC LUKOIL.
Within the principles of a social partnership, IATUO, together with the Company's management, is constantly working to protect employees' legitimate interests and rights to health protection and safe working conditions. Trade unions regularly interact with specialized services of enterprises and pay special attention to the quality of training employees in safe work techniques and methods, the prevention of occupational injuries and occupational diseases, the provision of personal and collective protective equipment, and other aspects of safety culture.
Projects are underway to introduce leadership tools and to involve personnel at all levels in conscious and active efforts to improve safety and develop strong beliefs and behavioral patterns in employees. In our daily operations, we use electronic work permits and on-the-job training for more than twenty occupations, digital video surveillance and intelligent video analysis systems, instructional videos on the safe operation of certain types of activities, the Mobile Inspector application, and other safety tools. Every year, we hold competitions, with participants developing the best projects receiving an award; and the success of safety culture measures is taken into account when drawing up the results.
