Employees

Salaried employees

This group includes individuals who primarily carry out administrative and organisational duties:

• Accounting and Finance: Responsible for managing the company's financial resources, including invoicing, payroll and budgeting.
• Sales and Marketing: Responsible for developing and implementing strategies to promote the company’s services and attract new customers.
• Human Resources: Responsible for recruiting, training and supporting employees as well as managing employment contracts and social benefits.
• Customer Service: Responsible for processing customer enquiries and complaints to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.
• Management Accounting: Responsible for monitoring the company's financial performance. Management Accounting supports the company in achieving its financial goals.
• Treasury: Responsible for managing the company's liquidity; this includes managing bank accounts and investments.
• Tax: Responsible for tax planning and administration to ensure that the company meets all its fiscal obligations.
• Legal: Legal advice and support in minimising legal risks and ensuring the company's compliance with legal requirements.

Industrial and technical employees

This group includes individuals who carry out technical and practical tasks:

• Technicians and engineers: Responsible for maintaining and repairing technical equipment and systems and developing new technical solutions.
• Tradespersons: Responsible for practical work such as installations, repairs and maintenance.
• IT specialists: Responsible for maintaining the company's IT infrastructure, including its networks, software and hardware.
• Production staff: Employees at technical facilities such as sorting plants, plastic recycling facilities and counting centres.

The work carried out by these employees naturally depends on Interzero's strategy and business model. Conversely, the company's commercial success largely depends on its employees and their expertise, which means active interaction and knowledge-sharing is highly relevant.

No material IROs related to child or forced labour were identified in the double materiality assessment. Interzero’s Code of Conduct (COC) expressly states that the company strictly prohibits child labour, forced labour and failure to pay the minimum wage. The COC regulates the company’s activities in high-risk countries or geographical areas. Should any breaches become apparent within the supply chain, Interzero terminates its collaboration and takes legal action where appropriate.

Discrimination based on age, gender, disability or origin, for example, is also excluded in Interzero's Code of Conduct. The company also monitors social trends and actively addresses its employees’ situation to avoid disadvantages and hazards within its own company as much as possible. Potential hazards were primarily identified in the following categories:

Characteristics with particular potential hazards

• Gender: Women are often affected by discrimination, particularly in male-dominated industries and leadership positions.
• Cultural and ethnic diversity: Individuals with a migrant background or a different cultural context often experience discrimination due to their origin.
• Religion or belief: People who belong to a minority religion or hold particular beliefs may experience discrimination.
• Disability: People with physical or intellectual disabilities are often disadvantaged and find it difficult to get the same opportunities.
• Age: Older and younger employees may experience discrimination because of their age, particularly when it comes to hiring and promotion.
• Sexual orientation and identity: LGBTQ+ people are often exposed to discrimination and prejudice.

At-risk activity groups

• Hourly-paid employees: This group may experience discrimination based on gender, ethnic origin or sexual orientation, particularly in leadership positions.
• Technical employees: Technicians and engineers may experience discrimination based on gender or ethnic origin, particularly in heavily male-dominated areas.
• IT specialists: This group may experience discrimination based on gender and ethnic origin, as the IT sector is often dominated by specific demographic groups.
• Tradespersons and production staff: These activity groups may experience discrimination based on ethnic origin and age, particularly in traditional or skilled trades.

ESRS S1 – Impact, risk and opportunity management

ESRS S1-1 – Policies related to own workforce

Interzero’s own employees play a central role in its corporate and sustainability strategy. ‘No waste of talent’ is one of the company's guiding sustainability principles, as people and their abilities are at the heart of Interzero's expertise as a circular solutions provider. Interzero promotes the health, motivation and development of its employees in order to boost their performance and satisfaction in everyday work in long term - also to ensure a high quality of service for customers. Our focus is clearly defined:

• We want to promote the physical and mental health of our employees while reducing our sickness, accident and employee turnover rates to below the averages for the industry. We provide a safe, value-oriented and innovative working environment that actively supports personal development.
• We want to guarantee full and effective participation to everyone at all levels of our company – and independently of age, gender, ethnicity, religion or social status. This is why we ensure that equal opportunities are truly equal for all (potential) employees within our company.

The company has developed specific policies in order to meet its social responsibilities towards its employees, and constantly seeks to keep improving the positive effects it has on its own workforce.

Working conditions

Interzero is committed to providing secure employment and adequate wages; both help to provide employees with stability and wellbeing. The company also helps employees to strike a healthy work-life balance and maintain both their mental and physical wellbeing. This not only strengthens well-being within the company, but also Interzero's attractiveness as an employer.

Interzero provides a certain degree of job security by offering permanent employment contracts, among other factors. The company also supports employees in the event of potential job restructuring, taking each employee’s skills into account, and works with them to develop suitable training opportunities. Even though Interzero is not bound by a collective bargaining agreement, it has committed to pay the generally applicable minimum wage in the waste management industry for staff not covered by collective bargaining agreements. Moreover, Interzero's pay is in line with the standard in Germany and complies with all statutory regulations in order to ensure fair wages and salaries. For remuneration, transparent criteria are applied that are based on an individual’s training, previous experience, performance and achievements.

Interzero attaches great importance to a healthy work-life balance, for example by trying to make it as easy as possible for staff to return to work after parental leave. Interzero offers flexible working time arrangements to improve work-life balance and allows its salaried employees to work remotely depending on their role. Unfortunately, this opportunity is not available to all employees, particularly those at production sites, where systems operate around the clock, 365 days a year. Work at these sites is carried out in alternating shift models, which are scheduled well in advance to ensure as much certainty as possible when it comes to planning.

The health and safety of its employees is a priority for Interzero. All major company locations¹ have an occupational health and safety management system certified, where appropriate, to ISO 45001. To promote the health of all employees and prevent illness, Interzero also works on the continuous development of its corporate health management system. The managing directors and senior managers of the companies are responsible for maintaining internal and statutory health and safety standards. Safety officers help them to implement the risk control measures necessary to prevent accidents and sickness in the workplace.

Interzero has appointed external service providers to provide occupational safety and healthcare for staff, and many companies have also appointed a health management officer. The occupational health and safety committee holds regular meetings at which the various stakeholders discuss all matters related to occupational health and safety. For example, the occupational safety specialist and a company doctor collaborate on the preparation of risk assessments to identify work-related risks to physical and mental health and establish mitigation actions.

¹ This applies to: Interzero Recycling Alliance GmbH, Interzero Europe GmbH, Interzero Circular Solutions Germany, Interzero Deposit Solutions, Interzero Product Cycle and Interzero Repasack, and Interzero Business Solutions

Equal treatment and opportunities

The material impacts of Interzero's commitment in this area include gender equality and equal pay, and training and skills development in the workforce, as well as an inclusive working environment and the promotion of diversity. This also has a positive impact on company-related factors such as its attractiveness as an employer and the long-term performance and innovative strength of the workforce.

Interzero is careful to consider equal opportunities and avoid any form of discrimination when hiring or promoting employees. As a result, the company strives for equal pay for work of equal value at every level.

Interzero invests in training and education and attaches great importance to the personal development of its employees because this has proven itself to be the best way of retaining skilled and motivated employees over the long term. The competency model created by the company, which is based on its long-term personnel strategy, offers guidance to employees at all levels. It explains requirements in a straightforward manner, creates a feedback culture for strategic personnel development, and enables open and transparent talent management practices. This provides Interzero with a systematic approach to employee development and allows it to fill newly created or vacant positions from within the company. Interzero only looks for qualified personnel outside the company when it is unable to fill positions internally.

To enable its employees to fully tap into their potential, Interzero creates the best possible working environment that is free of discrimination. Interzero treats all employees equally, regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, sexual identity or orientation, disability or religion. All employees should be able to work in an environment that is free from physical, sexual, psychological and verbal abuse. Interzero does not tolerate discrimination in any form.

Interzero sees significant added value for the company in having a diverse workforce. This is why it has explicitly integrated the corporate values of diversity and equal opportunity into its corporate culture. These values form the basis of how we act and work together:

• „We are all in as one team“ – team spirit and dedication 
  Each and every one of us is an important member of the team. We appreciate the individual contributions of all our employees arising from good ideas, dedication and a sense of responsibility. We are stronger together!
• „We get better every day“ – Constant improvement 
  We believe that sustainable change can be achieved by constantly pushing forward and looking to the future. We strive to think outside the box. Instead of blocking our path, obstacles challenge us to come up with solutions.
• „We stay humble“ – Honesty and humility 
  Our vision of a world without waste is vast and challenging. We are open to learning new things while staying humble and making any necessary changes. We have the right mindset to create a sustainable future.

In addition, the company’s Code of Conduct sets out the principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination in the organisation and is binding on all employees. The topics of non-discrimination and equal opportunity are also part of the Interzero compliance management system (CMS).

Respect for human rights

Treating others in the workplace with dignity and respect is an integral part of our corporate culture. Interzero respects internationally recognised human rights and is committed to the core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The company is committed to upholding social and labour standards in all of its business activities. The company will not tolerate non-compliance with its code of conduct or internationally recognised human rights. Our Code of Conduct explicitly excludes forced labour and child labour.

ESRS S1-2 – Processes for engaging with own workforce and workers' representatives about impacts

Interzero attaches great importance to maintaining an open dialogue with its employees and takes their interests and perspectives into account at different levels. For example, the company uses annual employee appraisal meetings as a standardised format for exchanging information. Employees can use these meetings to discuss their concerns directly with their line managers, agree targets and decide how to reach them. The company also uses software to monitor employee satisfaction. We also have a survey tool for employees, which can be used to obtain opinions on various topics.

In addition, Interzero holds an all-hands meeting called Interzero Meet every six months to maintain a constant dialogue with employees and advance the company based on their needs. As well as being kept informed about strategic decisions and group-related issues, employees can also ask questions directly to management and raise their own issues. Interzero Meet is held as a hybrid event, allowing colleagues from all entities and locations and those working from home to participate. In-between events, we offer various opportunities for interaction with digital CEO Updates and Management Talks and town hall and strategy meetings in the different areas.

The company offers another permanent internal knowledge platform called the Interzero Hub where employees can obtain all important information on topics such as human resources, employee development, recruiting and HR services. All key human resources topics are covered on the Interzero Hub, from training opportunities, payroll information and equality and diversity to reporting channels for potential compliance violations.

The Human Resources department also keeps its colleagues informed about all relevant issues via the Interzero Voice social intranet platform.

Interzero engages with workers’ representatives wherever possible to give proper consideration to the interests and rights of its workforce. Workers’ representatives are particularly involved in the event of changes to departments such as new hires or redundancies. The Berlin and Eisenhüttenstadt sites of Interzero Plastics Sorting GmbH had a Works Council during the period under review.

The CEO of Interzero is responsible for including employees in the corporate strategy.

ESRS S1-3 – Processes to remediate negative impacts and channels for its own workforce to raise concerns

As outlined in the Governance (G1) chapter, all employees can contact our legally qualified ombudsman, Stephan Rheinwald, about possible incidents of discrimination confidentially by email (zero.discrimination@interzero.de) or telephone. Any breaches reported or identified are investigated in detail. Once the issue has been discussed with all parties involved and relevant facts have been collected, those affected will receive feedback and further support within 14 days, and Interzero will take disciplinary action where appropriate. Detailed documentation of these measures and their results as well as regular reports help to ensure their transparency and traceability.

The safety officers also record problems and hazardous workplace conditions and, depending on the site, report them either to the health management officer or directly to the external occupational safety specialists and external company doctors. Workplace incidents are reviewed in consultation with the occupational safety specialist and, where necessary, measures are put in place to prevent future incidents.

Interzero’s compliance case management process, which has been coordinated with the Executive Management and the Supervisory Board, entails reporting critical issues to these bodies on the basis of a defined catalogue of criteria. The Compliance Office monitors adherence to this process. The number and type of critical issues are confidential and constitute sensitive information under competition law, which Interzero does not communicate externally.

Regular internal audits and reviews of the processes and measures in place help the company to monitor adherence to and efficacy of its corrective measures. In some cases, external consultants or auditors may be called in to carry out an objective assessment of these measures and offer suggestions for improvement.

Complaints Ombudsman (Section 8 LkSG)

As the parent company as defined by the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz – LkSG), Interzero Holding GmbH & Co. KG has also tasked its Compliance Officer Services Legal, Stephan Rheinwald, to act as its (outsourced) Complaints Ombudsman as defined by Section 8 LkSG for all of its companies subject to the LkSG.

The Complaints Ombudsman receives complaints about violations of human rights and environment-related due diligence obligations by Interzero's companies or suppliers thereof. Reported incidents are processed in accordance with the “Interzero rules of procedure on processing complaints about violations of human rights and environment-related due diligence obligations”. The Complaints Ombudsman may be contacted by Interzero’s employees as well as its customers, business partners and suppliers. Complaints may be submitted in person or by telephone in either German or English, and can be submitted in text form in any language.

ESRS S1-4 – Taking action on material impacts on own workforce, and approaches to managing material risks and pursuing material opportunities related to own workforce, and effectiveness of those actions

Interzero introduced and continued various measures relating to working conditions as well as equal treatment and opportunities during the period under review in order to continue improving its employees’ situation and avoid negative impacts.

Working conditions

Work-life balance is a crucial factor in employee satisfaction. Interzero has introduced initiatives such as flexible working hours and remote working opportunities in recent years to improve work-life balance. Flexitime and/or trust-based working hours are practised within the company. It also offers childcare support services to help employees strike a better work-life balance. The company measures the success of these initiatives by conducting satisfaction surveys and analysing the employee turnover rate.

Support here was extended with the services of pme Familienservice in 2015. This agency’s services include organising individual care solutions for children and dependants. Employees can also make use of counselling services offered on topics such as burnout, trauma, addiction or relationship problems.

To promote the health of all employees and prevent illness, Interzero works on the continuous development of its corporate health management system. Interzero’s sustainable health management activities include preventative measures such as the “Active Lunch Break”, health ambassadors, fitness programmes and a fruit basket for employees. Interzero offers its employees a wide-ranging programme of sports courses, health advice and preventive care, some of which are organised in cooperation with the Techniker Krankenkasse health insurance fund and fitness course providers. The company assesses its sickness absence rate on an annual basis.

Management staff at all levels as well as apprentice trainers are given instruction in ‘healthy leadership’ and the company’s health management programme once a year. There is also a regular exchange among the trainers on the topic of health. A comprehensive series of interviews are also held with staff returning from long-term sick leave, with a focus on industrial/technical roles. The aim is to identify correlations between the workplace and sickness absence at an early stage to enable interventions to be made where necessary. As part of the company's health management programme, the occupational rehabilitation management team helps employees reintegrate into the workplace after long-term illness.

To prevent and reduce work-related accidents, Interzero has implemented safety protocols, carries out regular safety inspections, runs regular occupational and mandatory training sessions and, of course, provides all necessary safety equipment. Those who are at particular risk by virtue of their duties are provided with additional instruction on an ad hoc or task-related basis. Health management officers and safety officers attend annual training courses, some of which are mandatory. These measures are continually assessed by monitoring accident statistics and gathering feedback from employees. The company plans to introduce hazard assessments to identify physical stress.

Equal treatment and opportunities

Interzero encourages and supports its employees in their professional development and improving their qualifications as part of its training and development plan, with initiatives such as professional training and mentoring programmes. The company uses performance evaluations and employee feedback to monitor the success of these initiatives. The mentoring programmes and coaching make a particular difference in improving career opportunities for women. For example, Interzero offers events on female leadership as well as one-to-one coaching as part of its learning management system.

Sustainable workforce planning also means safeguarding the resource of ‘knowledge’ within our company. In 2024, Interzero identified the need for a more comprehensive succession management approach, including a career matrix and career pathways. The company is continuing to develop its succession management to ensure that no internal expertise is lost.

Since 2022, Interzero has been running a Diversity Programme with the aim of boosting diversity within the company and raising awareness about the topic. The goal is to ensure the company reflects society across all levels of the workforce. Measures, such as implementing a system for reporting infringements of Interzero’s diversity targets, a greater focus on hiring non-German-speaking staff, a further rollout of our awareness training courses and the appointment of sponsors at management level for various aspects of diversity are being implemented continuously.

Regular training to raise awareness of diversity and inclusion can also help to eliminate prejudice. For example, Interzero runs a training course on the German General Act on Equal Treatment (Allgemeines Gleichstellungsgesetz – AGG). The aim of the AGG is to prevent discrimination in the workplace and protect the rights of the workforce. The training course covers the following topics:

• Principles and aims of the AGG
• Differentiating between various discrimination characteristics
• Rights and obligations arising from the AGG
• Recognising and tackling discrimination

This training helps to integrate the interests and rights of the workforce into our corporate strategy and business model while promoting an inclusive and fair corporate culture.

Team spirit, diversity, openness and fairness are all part of Interzero’s corporate culture. To entrench our corporate values – “We are all in as one team”, “We get better every day” and “We stay humble” – in the workplace, Interzero uses a wide variety of formats such as operational culture teams, One Day in Your Shoes and one-to-one feedback. Additional formats such as MySessions and peer-based consulting have been introduced to help teams share information and learn from one another. The values have also been embedded into various control and management tools. For example, the content and procedures of our annual appraisal interview are based on our values.

It is essential for Interzero to keep well-qualified and motivated employees at the company – and inspire outstanding professionals to join our mission of “zero waste solutions” in the future. With this in mind, the company is investing in targeted recruitment initiatives via different, primarily digital channels. One example is the digital Employee Referral Programme from Radancy (formerly Firstbird) that Interzero has been using since the end of 2022. Interzero employees who share a job advertisement via email or social media that is then successfully filled receive a EUR 1,000 gross bonus once their new colleague has received their first salary payment.

Designated officers

The officers responsible for managing material impacts include the following:

• Occupational health and safety officers monitor adherence to occupational health and safety regulations.
• Inclusion officers ensure that the company complies with the requirements relating to the employment of employees with severe disabilities.
• Company doctors and occupational safety specialists carry out healthcare and occupational health and safety tasks.
• Fire prevention officers are responsible for fire safety within the company.
• Data protection officers monitor compliance with data protection legislation and advise the company on data protection issues.

ESRS S1 – Metrics and targets

ESRS S1-5 – Targets related to managing material negative impacts, advancing positive impacts, and managing material risks and opportunities

Interzero’s new sustainability strategy is currently being developed and will be even more heavily integrated into corporate strategy in the future. Our aim is to meet our environmental and social responsibilities more and more effectively. This also involves incorporating our employees’ concerns into our strategy even more than before, continuing to improve working conditions and strengthening the principles of equal treatment and opportunities. Activities in Human Resources are aligned with these objectives and will be backed up with measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) during the forthcoming reporting period.

The information was provided on 31 December of the respective year. There were no significant changes to the workforce. The increase in the number of temporary employees mainly relates to the commercial sector.

In the years under review, only in Germany was a proportion of employees covered by collective agreements.

There is no European works council.

The current presentation (top management level) includes persons in Executive Management as well as persons with responsibility for personnel, earnings or sales who do not hold an executive management position.

All Interzero employees are offered an annual performance and career development review meeting. All employees are free to attend this meeting. Participation in the annual reviews has been declining recently. 

No work-related fatalities were recorded in the 2023 and 2024 reporting periods – neither among our own employees nor among non-employees. Furthermore, there were no fatalities associated with work-related injuries or ill health.

Recordable workplace accidents primarily occur at Interzero's production sites. Wide-ranging measures are being introduced to continually reduce the number of work-related accidents. Our systems are not currently able to record and assess the number of lost days associated with work-related ill health or injuries.

In 2023, the average salary for women in the company was higher than the average salary for men. This was no longer the case in 2024 due to changes to the organisational structure and the closure of operational sites primarily consisting of male hourly-paid workers, with male employees then earning more on average than their female colleagues.

The gender pay gap shows the percentage difference between the average salaries of men and women and is calculated as follows:

• Sum of all salaries (full-time equivalents) for male employees divided by the number of male employees = average salary for male employees.
• Sum of all salaries (full-time equivalents) for female employees divided by the number of female employees = average salary for female employees.

The total remuneration ratio is currently only recorded for Interzero Group companies based in Germany. We are aiming to extend this metric to include all consolidated companies.

In 2024, one case of bullying was reported internally in a German company. The facts of the case were comprehensively investigated and the incident was dealt with in detail. In this specific case, a suspicion of bullying could not be substantiated. Nevertheless, the necessary measures were taken to raise awareness in order to prevent bullying incidents in the future and prevent further incidents. We are not aware of any other cases. We are not aware of any other cases.

Cases received by Compliance Management via the internal reporting body are passed on to the relevant internal departments. No cases were reported by the Compliance Officer last year. The contact details of the Compliance Officer are prominently displayed in the Interzero Hub so that all employees can access them.