GRI 103-1, 103-2, 103-3: Covid-19 pandemic

In 2021, given the persistence of the covid-19 pandemic state amid the gradual return of daily activities, the importance of ensuring health safety in work environments became even more evident. For Cepel, taking care of employees and the communities in which we operate is a way of helping to avoid an even greater social and economic crisis in the face of the pandemic's impacts.

The policy adopted by Cepel to respond to the pandemic context was the same defined by the Eletrobras Companies, whose development was based on international standards and had the support of specialists from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). With the accumulation of knowledge and the maturation of our experience in combating the pandemic, the last year was a time to adjust our internal and external performance to ensure that our activities were carried out safely and that our audiences had all the necessary support.

Cepel continued to invest in materials and equipment for hygiene and contagion prevention, such as alcohol, medical supplies, products for cleaning environments, masks, and other personal protective equipment, and even in the installation of safety partitions in the new canteens. If at the beginning of the pandemic it was possible to count on the group's companies' support to facilitate access to products to combat the coronavirus, in the last year it was necessary to adjust schedules, adapt activities and redouble our efforts in the acquisition of these products.

Commitment to communication proved to be of great importance in dealing with the pandemic. We invested in the production of informative materials and in holding virtual meetings and seminars to address prevention measures, and we created an application to facilitate the monitoring of information about the health of our employees, scholarship holders, and interns. Aware of the importance of collective immunization in controlling the pandemic, we also developed a vaccinometer to disseminate vaccination data from effective and outsourced employees.

Caring not only for the direct internal public, but also for family members, contractors, suppliers, and customers has been a constant in Cepel's performance in the face of the pandemic. With all these precautions, the return to face-to-face work took place quite satisfactorily.We have prepared a Return Plan for On-site Activities based on the standards of actions to combat the pandemic and updated it whenever necessary, in addition to being widely publicized. Through monitoring tools, we found that in the last year no contamination of employees occurred on our premises – which highlights the effectiveness of our care and the quality of the protocol adopted to combat the spread of the disease. The application of the protocol and monitoring are also extended to outsourced employees.
It is a pleasure to see that Cepel managed to establish a safe environment for the professionals who work in its facilities.

In a pandemic scenario, maintaining safe operation and productivity depends on concrete and well-founded actions, but also on the trust and adhesion of the people involved in the processes. Thus, at every opportunity, Cepel's Executive Board was open to accepting suggestions, complaints and doubts from employees, interns, and scholarship holders. The launch of the Return Plan for On-Site Activities was accompanied by the creation of the e-mail sugestoes.protocolo@cepel.br to receive suggestions that may be incorporated into the document, which is open to improvements.

With the support of several areas of the institution – such as Occupational Health, Acquisitions and Contracts, Information Technology, Financial and Legal – and the leadership of the Executive Board, Cepel is committed to ensuring the health and safety of everyone involved in its activities, and we have obtained good results. By relying on structured monitoring and improvement processes, we reinforce our care and commitment to the people who are part of our organization and to society.