Health and safety

Since Philips was founded in 1891, it has worked to improve social equity and environmental quality, proving that responsible business is good business. Operating this way, the company has been able to improve economic prosperity for itself, its stakeholders and society at large. ‘Lead in Sustainability’ is one of the key objectives in Philips strategic planning, underlining the importance Philips places on sustainability. To accomplish this ambition, we need to ensure that we also lead in our Occupational Health & Safety performance.

Management has a key role to drive safety at their sites and within their functional organizations. Occupational Health and Safety, driven by our General Business Principles and Company Values, is an integral part of our doing business, and must be incorporated into every action we undertake: there is no activity so important or urgent that cannot be done in an appropriate, healthful and safe way.

We care for our people. Each employee, contractor and visitor has the right to a safe working environment. By consistent and continuing efforts, accidents and occupational illnesses can be prevented. All individuals within Philips share this responsibility for achieving a world-class level in Occupational Health and Safety performance. Everyone shall be concerned about his/her person, fellow employees, and public health and company prosperity.

Philips aims to maintain a safe and healthy work environment for its employees, contract labor and visitors, and therefore is committed to do all that is reasonably feasible to:

Meet or exceed requirements laid down in applicable Health and Safety laws and regulations, as well as voluntary standards that Philips subscribed;
Implement procedures for the identification, prevention and minimization of hazards and risks;
Provide all employees with relevant information and regular training on Occupational Health and Safety aspects;
Consult and cooperate with employees and/or their representatives and other stakeholders;
Implement preventive practices and responsive procedures with regard to emergencies and accidents;
Be fully transparent in the periodic reporting on Health and Safety performance;
Promote a Plan-Do-Check-Act systematic approach at all levels in the organization in order to ensure continual improvement.

A number of sites showed outstanding safety performance, for example the Healthcare Pune site in India, which reached a significant milestone by achieving over 4 million man-hours without an LWIC by the end of 2015 (over 3 years without an accident).