Employment and working conditions
Our focus on the health and safety of workers contributes to safer, more secure working environments. Therefore, our actions on worker safety have a positive impact on the daily working conditions of our employees. Our potential negative impact continues to revolve around injuries and illness. This potential impact is caused by Vion or its workers. Workers can raise concerns about issues affecting their rights, such as health and safety conditions, through our whistleblower policy.In Germany, our efforts to directly employ former flex workers had a positive impact on labour rights for workers, including migrant workers and those in precarious employment.
Workforce management policy
At present, it is hard to recruit enough suitable production personnel. With the exception of Germany, the number of flex workers is relatively high. This is primarily due to the lack of qualified candidates, together with the need for operational flexibility.We work closely with third-party labour companies, which is common practice in the meat and other industries. Tight labour market conditions in Germany and the Netherlands mean that our third-party and regular production workforces mainly comprise employees from eastern and southern European countries.
Our objective is to increase the proportion of Vion employees to achieve greater personnel stability and provide employees with more certainty. This means reducing the proportion of third-party workers and establishing a long-term commitment to the people who work for Vion via flex agencies. We promote the integration of foreign employees, including refugees, into the labour market by offering jobs, language courses and onboarding programmes.
Vion is committed to a workplace environment that promotes diversity and inclusion and creates an open and inclusive culture where everyone feels valued and respected. We believe that embracing equality and diversity in the workplace benefits not just the organization but also the individual employee, (cooperation in) teams and in the end our consumer. Inclusion, including correct ethical behavior, sincerity, trustworthiness and integrity are guiding principles within Vion.
We practice that we value diversity by providing equality of opportunity and ensuring that no job applicant, employee, client or business relation is discriminated against by receiving a different treatment due to their background or personal characteristics.
Sustainable employability means ensuring that employees can work at Vion in an effective and sustainable way, until they reach retirement age. Sustainable employability is considered in the context of a person’s position, rights and responsibilities. As yet, there is no legislation on sustainable employability as a whole in our home markets.
We stimulate sustainable employability and job satisfaction by offering modern working conditions. This includes having a programme in the Netherlands to help employees stay fit, healthy and employable. This programme will also be introduced in Germany and Belgium and consists of five pillars as part of the “House of Work Ability”:
- Work
- Social
- Emotion
- Financial
- Physical
The people who work at our production locations matter most to us. Improving, maintaining and promoting the health and safety of our people is therefore an important goal. We are committed to being a frontrunner in our industry when it comes to working conditions.
In 2023, our objective is to have an absentee rate of no more than 6.5% in the Netherlands, 5.0% in Germany and 4.0% in Belgium. We monitor this figure weekly, analyse any accidents or near-misses that may have occurred (by using root cause analysis) and see how we can prevent such accidents and incidents. We have several procedures and regulations in place to create and maintain a safe working environment. Each German and Dutch production location has a Health and Safety Officer.In Germany, we also employ regional Health and Safety Managers. In the Netherlands, we have also defined an additional separate role for the HR Manager: that of Prevention Officer.We carry out internal occupational safety audits systematically. Plant managers regularly review occupational safety KPIs as part of their management review. At every Vion location, we pay attention to working conditions through an improvement cycle. The improvement cycle is based on the Deming Circle.
Employees and flex workers can access the health and safety services of the Prevention Officer,BHV-er (a company responder on health issues), the occupational health and safety service, a workplace expert, an ergonomist and a company physiotherapist, if needed. These people receive regular training to ensure the quality of their services. This access contributes to the identification and elimination of hazards and the minimisation of risks. Employees can follow OHS training on generic or specific work-related hazards.
The collective insurance policy includes employee access to an online intervention platform. Here they can find information on vitality and sustainable employability. In addition, Vion offers various interventions in the field of ESAN – exercise, smoking, alcohol, nutrition and relaxation – through external providers or via the online workshops offered by the Vion Academy.
Vion is committed to empowering all employees to learn and achieve, offering quality learning which equips them with the knowledge and skills our business requires.
We develop and train our employees, actively encouraging them to constantly develop their personal and professional skills. We also invest in language and culture courses. Through continuous education and training, we facilitate and promote the employability of our workforce.
This vision responds to our Way of Working: Sharp, Connected & Brave and is tailored to our People Strategy:
- Better skills management
- Improved talent management
- Better alignment with the ambitions of our teams
- Further development of craftsmanship
Animal welfare is an important topic in this area. We provide all staff who work with animals with the skills and knowledge to ensure the best animal welfare practices. They receive specific animal welfare training. The Vion online learning platform, called ‘Vion Academy’, offers training programmes that aim to develop and extend our employees’ knowledge and skills so that they continue to be employable in the future. We also offer customised solutions, such as individual internal and external training programmes and qualifications.We also accept interns within Vion. These interns combine school with work experience in the field and we actively help these interns improve their chances in the labour market.