Building critical to Northvolt’s safety after the accidents

Two people have died after workplace accidents at Northvolt in Skellefteå.
– We have of course reviewed the routines, says Northvolt’s production manager Fredrik Hedlund.
But Byggnad’s chairman Thomas Rolén still thinks there are major problems with the working environment.

During Thursday afternoon, an accident occurred at the battery factory in Skellefteå. A fork stand must have fallen and two people were injured, later the police announced that one of the men had died.

It is the second serious accident at Northvolt in the space of a few weeks. In November, a man was seriously injured in an explosion. The 25-year-old man was treated in hospital, but died on the night of Friday, December 15 – just hours after the death notice following the crane accident.

– You probably can’t imagine how big this workplace is if you haven’t been there. To have an overview and control in such a large workplace, based on the protection organization that the company Northvolt has, I think it is very difficult. I also know that there are a great many foreign companies that have a culture of silence, says Byggnad’s chairman Thomas Rolén.

– It is terrible that you should not be able to go to work in the morning and be sure to come home in the evening when the day’s work is over.

“Coming way too late”

Northvolt’s production manager Fredrik Hedlund says that they have stopped work in the part of the factory where the explosion occurred.

– We have done extremely broad risk analysis work to ensure that if necessary in certain areas we have strong work even better around which routines we have. This took place during a routine maintenance mission, but we have of course reviewed the routines there as well.

But Byggnad’s Thomas Rolén is skeptical of how they handle security.

– It is good that the routines are reviewed, but it comes far too late. You have a workplace organization that is constantly being replaced. We, as union representatives, have pointed out errors and shortcomings during the course of the journey. But those who have now been given the mandate to act as chief protection agents are not allowed to act fully.

After the latest accident, there are still many question marks, so no work has been done to ensure safety there yet.

– In the accident in construction that happened yesterday, work has just begun there to see what actually happened. So we’ll have to come back to that later, says Fredrik Hedlund.