As of end of December 2022, the total number of direct staff was 430 and there are no contractor workers; the gender ratio is 52% females to 48% males.
Working Conditions and Management of Worker Relationship:
The Human Capital Department manages employee welfare and training. BioVac has in place a set of HR policies that cover non-discrimination, recruitment and selection, new employee onboarding, performance management, the grievance mechanism, appeal procedure, sexual harassment, disciplinary code, employee wellness, vaccination policy and retrenchment. The human capital team are responsible for implementation of HR policies and procedures. The employee equity policy and code of conduct include statements on promotion based on equal opportunity principles and non-discrimination between employees at the workplace. Sexual harassment in the workplace is prohibited and the disciplinary consequences thereof are covered in the disciplinary code. The Company HR policies are communicated to staff during onboarding and are accessible on the company’s digital platform to be accessed at any time during employment.
Compliance with national labor legislation ensures alignment with the requirements of this PS and going forward the Company will apply similar HR policies and procedures to the new vaccine facility. Employee wage rates comply with legislated wage rates in South Africa and, where applicable, employees are paid in accordance with rates agreed upon with trade unions and/or collective bargaining councils and the finance workplace forum committee (refer below). Salaries are benchmarked against industry standards and performance appraisals are part of employee quality performance management. All employees are enrolled in the national mandatory social and medical insurance scheme. Working hours adhere to South Africa’s labor law to ensure appropriate hours of work and the management of overtime.
Freedom of Association:
The Company supports freedom of association and the right of its employees to collective bargaining, and this is legislated nationally. Previously, the Company was state owned, and most employees were unionized, however currently only 1% of employees are members of a union. The Company has a finance workplace forum committee whereby salaries are discussed. This is a platform where a representative from each department can raise any concern, they wish including that related to salaries. All queries raised are documented and presented to relevant stakeholders and responses provided in a formal manner which are tracked monthly and reported on quarterly basis to management.
Grievance mechanism:
The Company has a formal worker’s grievance policy accessible to all staff, supported by a multi-stage stage grievance procedure involving the line manager and the human capital team, thereafter the human capital team and an independent mediator and finally the dispute resolution commission established under the Labor Relations Act. There is a timeframe for the grievance process of 14 days. The outcomes of both stages are documented by the facilitator or human capital team (if not the facilitator). While there is an anonymous channel (drop box) to raise anonymous grievances, the grievance procedure will be updated to include specific mention of anonymity in line with PS2 requirements and this will be communicated to employees (ESAP #5).
Protecting the workforce:
BioVac Business code of conduct is explicit on prohibiting forced and child labour and the minimum employment age of 16 in South Africa is respected by the company. BioVac is committed to implement this through its recruitment process with provisions to not hire employees under the age of 18 years of age.
Occupational Health and Safety:
OHS risk, including liquid nitrogen related risk, is managed by the EHS compliance department, and an occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Risk Assessment (RA) is conducted for each product line. This guides the safety instructions and protective measures to be provided to workers at each unit or production line. There are certified first aiders whose names and contact details are posted in all facility areas, and they undergo regular external training. There is also a regular monthly EHS internal audit that covers fire safety as well as environmental aspects as part of the annual auditing plan.
In terms of work-related injuries and incident monitoring, all /injuries incidents are filed in future save forms which is completed online by employees or a witness. In case of an incident, corrective action plans are generated and progress on implementation is currently monitored by the EHS team. Completion of each corrective action is checked every two weeks by the senior EHS officer.
At BioVac minor injuries and near misses are differentiated to facilitate the monitoring of incident occurrence trends and reduce their recurrence in the future. The safety statistics dashboard includes a breakdown of injuries by type such as paper cuts at the packaging department. Slips and falls are the most common incidents currently recorded at the facility. Construction related issues by contractors are mainly related to use of ladders.
The Company tracks incidents according to an accepted methodology of evaluating key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs used consist of leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators include future save potential hazards and number of safety training sessions provided to staff of all departments. Lagging indicators such as future saves logged per department. During 2022 there were 4 lost time injuries, and the Disabling Incident Frequency Rate was 1.2.
Third-party Workers and Supply Chain:
The Company only employs reputable contractors that comply with national legislation, and this is enforced via the contractual requirements. Going forward and as part of the ESMS the Company will develop and implement a contractor management procedure aligned with the IFC’s PSs requirements and that applies to all construction activities on site including the new facility to be developed (ESAP #6).
