Occupational Health and Safety

2023

We continue our efforts to prevent discomfort that may occur among our employees due to repetitive work and poor postures and to improve ergonomic conditions in our work areas. In this regard, we analysed the days of sick leave due to the musculoskeletal system and conducted an Ergonomic Risk Assessment in the areas where people who took excessive sick leave work. Within the scope of the evaluation report prepared for 13 business steps, we reduced our risk to acceptable levels by taking precautions in 10 business steps in the same year, and decided to invest in three business steps. As part of ergonomic improvements, we invested in two vacuum lifters and put them into operation.

In line with Aromsa’s strategic goals in the field of OHS, we took our place in Türkiye’s “Journey to Zero Accident” Occupational Health and Safety Technologies Dissemination Project, initiated by TİSK and TİSK Microsurgery Foundation.

We have signed a collaboration agreement with Intenseye, which provides ethical AI-assisted occupational health and safety platform services. We aim to reduce workplace accidents to ‘0’ with the project, which instantly detects security violations and facilitates rapid intervention by utilizing AI-based image analysis. By completing the demo application, we started to detect unsafe situations and behaviours with 20 cameras and the rules defined under Area Control, Behaviour, Personal Protective Equipment, Vehicle and Organization.

We fulfil our responsibility to provide information about OHS issues to alert not only employees but also all our stakeholders who enter through our doors. In this context, we completed the shooting of our corporate film, which includes Occupational Health and Safety, Food Safety, Environmental and Information Security rules, and shared it in order to raise the awareness of subcontractor company employees and our visitors.

In addition to our technical measures to ensure collective protection in our work areas, we also take personal protective measures to prevent work-related accidents or occupational diseases and to protect our employees against health and safety risks. In this regard, we identify the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and work clothes that our employees should wear, taking into account the characteristics of their work. To ensure timely elimination of deficiencies, we began tracking PPE and work clothing on a per person and delivery date basis through the SAP program.

2024

Within the framework of our Emergency Plan, we have installed and commissioned an Emergency Announcement System integrated with the fire system at Aromsa 1-2-3-4 factories to support safe building evacuation in case of a fire or other emergencies.

As part of ergonomic improvements, we invested in four vacuum lifters and put them into operation.

We started using the Personnel Attendance Control System (PDKS) program to effectively manage the head counting process in emergencies that may occur outside working hours.

We conducted an Ergonomic Risk Assessment study for eight work steps to improve ergonomic conditions. In line with the evaluation report, we reduced our risk to an acceptable level by taking precautions in six business steps within the same year, and we made investment plans for two business steps.

As a result of the practices we implemented in our factories to establish a healthy and safe workplace within the scope of our OHS strategy, our proactive risk assessment studies and remedial measures, as well as increased employee awareness, we celebrated our 100^th accident-free day in Occupational Health and Safety.

As part of our Intenseye AI-Assisted OHS Platform project, we integrated a speaker into our 20 existing cameras, enabling instant audible warnings to workers in the field during dangerous vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian approaches.

To remind the importance of using PPE in preventing work-related accidents and to raise employee awareness, we organized an OHS awareness event at Aromsa 1-2-3-4 factories for our blue-collar employees.

OHS TRAININGS AND AWARENESS ACTIVITIES
We ensure that our employees receive all mandatory OHS training as part of the annual Training Plan. During the reporting period, all our employees completed Basic OHS Training through face-to-face and online training.

We provide training programs on Ergonomics, First Aid, Working at Heights, Practical Fire Extinguisher Use and Earthquake Awareness for our employees according to their work area and job description. In addition to our practical training program for Emergency Teams, we ensure that our employees participate in Lock Out, Tag Out, Test Out training, which we have prepared for our personnel involved in maintenance and repair processes, taking into account the requirements of machinery safety regulations.

We provide OHS training to our contractors and subcontractors on their first day of work and then on an annual basis. By using the Subcontractor/Contractor Brochure Information Film, we provide information about our current rules, how to prevent possible accidents and what to do in case of emergency.

During the period, we provided 3,138 person*hours of OHS training to our employees and 920 person*hours to contractor and subcontractor employees.

In addition to the onsite training, we use technology to support our training activities with interactive experiences and online awareness activities, ensuring that our training is more flexible and effective.

We provide information to our employees about current OHS issues through digital contents on our internal communication platform. During the reporting period, we published various contents, including ‘’The Best Ways to Destroy Pesticide,’ ‘Do You Know What to Do During a Fire?’ and ‘Caution: Heavy Snowfall!’, as well as a Disaster Awareness Training webinar on our internal communication platform, accessible to all our employees.

To refresh employees’ knowledge on OHS issues, we created OHS Corridors containing information boards and visuals about Personal Protective Equipment, Safe Load Handling, Hazardous Chemicals, Points to Consider When Using Forklifts, Lockout & Tagout (LOTO), Aromsa OHS Golden Rules, Hazard and Near-Miss Notifications, and Emergency Contact Details.

At Aromsa, we implement various incentive mechanisms to ensure that our employees adopt an occupational health and safety culture and to spread it throughout the company. We reward our employees who report hazards with Dangerous and Near-Miss Reporting cards.

As Aromsa, we organize events on OHS in cooperation with our suppliers and expert non-governmental organizations. In 2024, we organized an interactive event in collaboration with suppliers to remind our employees about the proper use of PPE, providing them with an entertaining training session. We organized online Disaster Awareness training in collaboration with AKUT.

In order to spread the OHS and disaster management culture, we implement projects designed to raise awareness among our employees as well as children. Following the Kahramanmaraş Earthquake on February 6, 2023, we distributed the ‘We Learn About Disasters, We Have Fun While Learning’ colouring and activity book to parents to refresh children aged 4-12 on their knowledge about disasters and explains what to do in the event of a disaster, in collaboration with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Earthquake Risk Management and Urban Development Department.

AUDITS ON OHS PERFORMANCE

As Aromsa, we carry out regular audits and inspections to measure and evaluate our OHS performance, and we create action plans to improve our processes in line with the findings of audits and controls. Audit reports provide the opportunity to compare and evaluate our OHS performance over the years and also provide input to guide our investments.

No non-compliance was detected as a result of the Integrated External Audit and Integrated Internal Audit activities carried out during the sustainability reporting period (2022-2023-2024).

During the reporting period, no non-compliance was detected as a result of the Social Compliance Audit conducted on an annual basis within the scope of the SEDEX Certificate, which certifies the compliance of our activities with social responsibility and ethical standards.

In addition to regular annual internal and external audits, we evaluate the results of OHS process audits, which are conducted more frequently, at OHS Board meetings. We carry out field inspections in our facilities with field managers on a daily and weekly basis and ensure that the results are reported and monitored through the QDMS Integrated Management System.

In line with the principle of inclusivity, the feedback from our employees is of critical importance in our planning for the improvement of our business processes. We conducted a survey for our blue-collar employees in 2024 to evaluate our OHS processes. As a result of the 10-question survey conducted with the participation of 114 employees, we received a score above 4.5 out of 5 for seven questions and above 4.25 for three questions. We planned improvement actions for the three subjects in which we received scores above 4.25.