Health and Safety

Introduction

As a manufacturing company, Autoneum prioritizes health and safety as essential aspects of our operations. We follow the principle of continuous improvement to efficiently prevent the occurrence of incidents and accidents. We are dedicated to ensuring a safe and healthy working environment for all employees, customers, suppliers, and visitors.

Shopfloor employees account for a significant portion of our workforce (9’215, or 72% of our 12’745 employees in 2025). A positive safety performance strengthens our reputation as an employer, fostering trust among stakeholders, including potential employees, local governments, and investors. Furthermore, effective health and safety measures have a positive financial impact by reducing costly accidents, improving efficiency, and minimizing downtime.

Management Approach and Policies

Internal Policies

Autoneum recognizes that Health and Safety is a material topic due to its direct impact on employees’ well-being and our overall business performance. Injuries and illnesses arising from our production activities can adversely affect employees, resulting in emotional and financial stress for them and their families. For Autoneum, downtime from accidents, or an increased number of accidents can reduce productivity, as operations are disrupted. This can present financial risks, including medical and insurance claims, as well as regulatory penalties. Additionally, non-compliance with health and safety standards can lead to legal actions, fines, and other liability issues.

By ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements and internal policies, Autoneum aims to create a safe workplace that protects employees’ health and enhances job satisfaction and retention. These efforts are supported by Autoneum’s ESG Directive, which outlines the key rules and procedures that must be followed to ensure a safe and healthy workplace, including trainings, personal protective equipment, joint management-worker health and safety committees, and reporting of grievances.

Autoneum collects and analyzes occupational health and safety management systems status, work-related injuries, and work-related ill health at each plant, Business Group, and across the organization. Each plant management team regularly informs employees about various key performance indicators (KPIs) through plant meetings, such as the Top 5 meeting (a brief 5-minute discussion held during each shift) and the Q-Talk (a quarterly meeting).

Autoneum’s Group Risk and Insurance Management carries out regular plant risk audits that are supported by external risk engineers. These audits look at various aspects, including property damage, business interruption, and EHS. The findings are reported in comprehensive reports to all relevant internal stakeholders including the Operational Committees, which are also attended by Group Executive Board members.

Governance

Operational implementation of social risk management–including Health and Safety–is conducted through the Corporate Responsibility Organization and the workstreams under the Corporate Responsibility Steering Committee. The Risk Council, comprising Business Group Controllers and Heads of Group Functions, performs semi‑annual reviews of risks and mitigation measures including for social topics such as Health and Safety. The outcomes are summarized in the Risk Report and presented to the Board of Directors and Group Executive Board.

All topics related to people, human rights, and employee development are referred to the Nomination Committee and the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors.

Environment, Health & Safety Management System

Autoneum’s Environment, Health & Safety Management (MEHS) system integrates international and national laws and regulations and adheres to the requirements of ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety). This system is designed to safeguard workers from work-related injuries and illnesses by identifying and mitigating physical, mechanical, electrical, and chemical hazards, and providing training and communication about safety objectives. The most significant employee-related health and safety hazards in Autoneum’s production plants are mechanical, electrical, temperature, ergonomics, noise, and chemical exposure. Additional risks occur when performing special tasks (e.g., hot work, work at height, and in confined spaces). Each year, Autoneum reports on its injury frequency rate (IFR). For further information, see the Vision 2025 Operational Targets in the Introduction section of this Material Topic.

Autoneum’s MEHS system is implemented in all plants and covers all Autoneum employees as well as all workers who are not employees but whose workplace and/or work is controlled by the organization. The regional Business Group and global Group EHS organization oversee EHS matters in the plants, while the Group Executive Committee is the highest endorsing decision-making body for the implementation of the MEHS policy. Many plants have an EHS coordinator to ensure compliance and continuous improvement in occupational health and safety standards. Autoneum’s global Group EHS and regional EHS teams meet on a monthly basis.

Active promotion of employee participation and consultation is integral to the effective implementation and continuous improvement of the EHS management system. Engagement efforts encompass communicating unsafe acts, conditions and near misses, as well as providing recommendations for improving EHS performance, including identifying environmental aspects, health and safety hazards; and conducting risk and impact assessments, including the establishment of improvement actions and contributing to incident investigations. We also seek to reduce injuries through ongoing training and safety campaigns.

Shopfloor workers receive updates on actions taken through direct feedback and during Gemba safety walks, as well as other safety-related discussions with plant management. These interactions promote open communication about safety concerns, creating a workplace where all employees feel comfortable voicing concerns and know their input is valued.

Each year, internal MEHS audits to ensure compliance with ISO 45001 are carried out within each Business Group by the regional EHS team or as part of a cross-plant audit. The findings are tracked within the Business Groups and reported to the global QEHS team. Action plans are implemented to resolve any problems that are discovered. Autoneum reports each year on the percentage of plants that have received ISO 45001 certification (see the Vision 2025 Operational Targets in the Introduction section of this Material Topic).

EHS Management

In alignment with the MEHS framework, each location is required to implement and maintain a systematic approach to assessing and prioritizing health and safety hazards specific to their operations. A structured Workplace Risk Assessment process, which is managed by EHS Management, enables Autoneum plants to evaluate and mitigate workplace risks in scenarios such as:

This assessment follows the five-step process defined in MEHS: risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation, validation and review, and reporting. Each site evaluates environmental, health and safety risks based on severity, probability, legal obligations, and stakeholder expectations. If a risk is identified, sites consider its potential negative effects and opportunities for improvement across their activities, including normal operations, maintenance, start-up and shutdown conditions, planned changes and potential emergencies. When significant risks are identified, actions are prioritized according to their potential impact, with those of higher severity or probability addressed first.

Each plant has a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) dedicated to continuous improvements in EHS practices. The committee includes at least six members–with three non-managerial employees representing shopfloor workers–and serves an essential role in gauging stakeholder needs and expectations. The JHSC recommends ways of increasing worker consultation and participation, helps spot hazards, evaluates associated risks and opportunities, and aids EHS Management in carrying out the Workplace Risk Assessment. It also recommends actions to eliminate hazards, reduce risks, and implement effective control measures. Additionally, the JHSC investigates incidents and nonconformities, determining corrective actions to stop them from happening again. The JHSC holds formal, documented meetings at least once a month.

Risk assessments, including ergonomic evaluations, are conducted at each workplace, with risks addressed following the hierarchy of controls: eliminate the hazard (elimination), replace the hazard (substitution), isolate people from the hazard (engineering controls), change the way people work (administrative controls), and protect the worker with personal protective equipment (PPE). Plant management teams also conduct Gemba (Japanese for “real place”) safety walks to spot and resolve unsafe conditions by observing processes and employee tasks for safety improvements. Each year, Autoneum reports on the percentage of plants that have developed and implemented ergonomic assessments (see Vision 2025 Operational Targets in the Introduction section of this Material Topic).

Training and Education

Autoneum offers specialized training programs for employees in all plants. These include machine guarding (a shield or device that covers a hazardous area of a machine), accident investigation and reporting, working at heights, and lockout-tagout (LOTO) processes to ensure equipment is shut off properly for maintenance work. Each year, Autoneum reports on EHS training at its plants (see Vision 2025 Operational Targets in the Introduction section of this Material Topic).

We regularly hold safety campaigns to inform employees about safe behavior, maintenance, and servicing, as well as the proper use of PPE to reduce risks during production, maintenance, logistics, and cleaning, among other activities. The Safety Leadership program, which is run by the Group QEHS team, focuses on plants with higher accident rates. Its objective is to raise awareness among plant, shift, and EHS managers about identifying potential hazards at an early stage and taking steps to reduce risks, as well as sharing new safety insights.

Information on severe injuries is communicated within the regional Business Group and Group through Lessons Learned reports and posted bulletins on designated information boards.

Safe Working Conditions at Suppliers

Suppliers must provide safe working conditions for employees, as outlined in Autoneum’s Code of Conduct for Suppliers. Its requirements include the establishment of a state-of-the art health and safety policy, the identification, evaluation and management of occupational health and safety standards, the provision of personal protective equipment, and health and safety training on a regular basis in the local language.

New Operational Targets

In 2025, the strategic and operational targets for Health and Safety came to a conclusion. In response, we have introduced the following operational targets for this Material Topic:

Key 2025 Actions, Progress, and KPIs

In 2025, Autoneum successfully conducted MEHS audits at more than 87% of its sites. These audits confirmed the overall conformity of the systems in place, with areas for improvement identified and actively managed by the respective plants.

Autoneum regularly monitors employees’ perception of working conditions, especially within production environments. Each location undergoes thorough workplace needs assessments conducted by the Business Groups. In 2025, Autoneum implemented 90 projects to address challenges in the following areas: workplace and machine safety, fire safety, ergonomics, temperature, lighting, air quality, and noise control. Autoneum invested more than CHF 4.6 million in EHS globally in 2025. 12’659 ² employees and workers who are not employees but whose work and/or workplace is controlled by the organization were covered by an internal occupational health and safety management system in line with ISO 45001. See the data table at this end of this section for other KPIs.

Accidents and Ill Health

The continuous improvement of health and safety conditions is essential for Autoneum. On the shopfloor, day-to-day tasks like lifting heavy loads or performing repetitive moments in awkward positions can lead to injuries and accidents. To prevent such issues, Autoneum strives to continually improve ergonomic conditions. In 2025, Autoneum confirmed its commitment to ergonomics by implementing assessments at 98.2% of its sites during both new project launches and ongoing operations.

Building on these efforts, we rolled out a new ergonomics software globally powered by artificial intelligence (AI). This tool helps conduct ergonomic risk analyses and identifies targeted measures to support employee health and performance. By using AI methods and data-based analysis, the module develops tailored solutions for better workplace ergonomics and aims to sustainably reduce musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).

In 2025, Autoneum reported 80 injuries, a 34% decline from the prior year due to improvements in plants with a higher number of injuries in 2024 and in new plants acquired in 2023. Cuts and stab wounds (from equipment), bruises, contusions, and fractures were the primary types of accidents for both employees and workers who are not employees but whose work and/or workplace is controlled by the organization at Autoneum plants. The most affected body parts were fingers, feet, and hands.

The IFR declined by 1.6 points to 3.5 because of improvements in several plants. The injury severity rate (ISR) was 9.1 in 2025, a 36% decrease from 2024 because of a lower number of injuries.

In February 2025, Autoneum announced the completion of the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Jiangsu Huanyu Group in China. We regret to report a fatal accident occurred in March 2025 at the Wuhan Taiyu facility. During the course of 2025, Autoneum conducted comprehensive audits across all newly integrated Jiangsu Huanyu sites to identify similar risks and implement robust corrective and preventive actions.

Training

In 2025, the Group QEHS team organized Safety Leadership programs across five Autoneum plants: Katowice (Poland), Berlin (Germany), Gothenburg (Sweden), and Stoke-on-Trent and Telford (UK). These sites were chosen due to higher injury rates in 2024 or because they were integrated following the Borgers acquisition in 2023. The training included topics like safety leadership, Autoneum Group safety tools, sharing best practices, and lessons learned from other facilities. Practical training sessions focused on safe forklift operation, pedestrian safety, and shopfloor ergonomics. Following the program, all participating plants saw improvements in their accident frequency and IFR throughout 2025.

In 2025, Autoneum also held operational workshops at selected locations focused on safety leadership, plant layouts, and the 5S system to enhance safety, cleanliness, and efficiency. These workshops will emphasize the removal of unnecessary items (sort), proper organization of equipment and tools (set in order), regular cleaning of workspaces, tools and equipment (shine), and the establishment of organizational standards and maintenance of discipline to uphold the system (sustain). The operational workshops were held at Katowice (Poland), Chocen (Czech Republic), and Ellzee and Bocholt (Germany).

Autoneum provided regular safety training in 2025 for its operators, who constitute the majority of our workforce. In May 2025, a safety campaign titled “Lock-out, Tag-out” was launched at all plants. Other campaigns focused on good practices for set-up and tool changes practices, fire prevention, and safe returns after holidays.

We also introduced an AI-enabled corporate EHS induction training video with engaging and locally adaptable content. Translated into more than 20 languages to ensure accessibility for our diverse workforce, this training ensures all employees receive consistent onboarding and essential EHS information from their first day of employment.

KPIs for Health and Safety