Case study: How Ashok Leyland promotes occupational health and safety
As a leading Indian commercial vehicle manufacturer, whose product portfolio includes buses, trucks, light vehicles, defence mobility solutions and power solutions, protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of its employees, contractors and visitors through a range of policies, programs and initiatives is a top priority for Ashok Leyland.
This case study is based on the 2016-17 Sustainability Report by Ashok Leyland published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Abstract
Ashok Leyland is committed to constantly strengthening its culture of safety Tweet This!, safeguarding the health and physical wellbeing of its 10,222 employees. In order to promote occupational health and safety Ashok Leyland took action to:
- implement an occupational safety program
- achieve health and safety objectives through safety committees
- provide safety training for employees
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Ashok Leyland has identified;
- How Ashok Leyland proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Ashok Leyland to promote occupational health and safety
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2016-17 Sustainability Report Ashok Leyland identified a range of material issues, such as business growth and profitability, regulatory compliance, energy management, product safety and quality, waste management, recruitment and talent/skill management. Among these, promoting occupational health and safety stands out as a key material issue for Ashok Leyland.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Ashok Leyland engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Employees
| · Monthly and quarterly meet · Personal review and visits · Surveys · Training · Annual day · Events |
| Suppliers
| · Suppliers meet · Tech days · Mutual visits · Monthly meetings with leadership · Events |
| Dealers
| · Events · Dealer panel engagement |
| Customers (Institutional and Retail) | · Events · Survey · Ashok Leyland initiatives |
| Government and Regulatory authorities | · One to one meetings · Events and conferences |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritize material issues Ashok Leyland collected stakeholder feedback through questionnaires and interactions.
What actions were taken by Ashok Leyland to promote occupational health and safety?
In its 2016-17 Sustainability Report Ashok Leyland reports that it took the following actions for promoting occupational health and safety:
- Implementing an occupational safety program
- Ashok Leyland’s occupational safety program includes all measures taken to prevent work accidents, work-related illnesses and occupational diseases. The safety program also comprises accident investigation, ergonomics, emergency response, hazard identification, risk assessment and constant workplace inspections. In addition, Ashok Leyland applies a health and safety policy which covers all the manufacturing, R&D, warehouse, distribution centers and office buildings across the company’s plants.
- Achieving health and safety objectives through safety committees
- To make sure health and safety goals are met, Ashok Leyland has established safety committees, with equal representation of employees and management. Safety committees discuss concerns, observations, results of audits and, also, review the company’s safety strategy. Additionally, safety committees promote transparent communication on incidents, accidents and their reporting and circulate important developments on safety improvements.
- Providing safety training for employees
- Ashok Leyland offers its employees first aid refresher training and, also, refresher training on the proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Additional training provided by the company includes driver safety for personnel involved in the operation of powered equipment, safe lifting practices, fire and electrical safety, accident response, spill response and training on machine-specific safeguards.
Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?
The GRI indicator addressed in this case is: G4-LA9: Average hours of training per year per employee by gender, and by employee category and the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 404-1 Average hours of training per year per employee
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by Ashok Leyland, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page
3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx
4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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