Occupational Health and Safety - Prevention of Occupational Accidents

For zero occupational accidents

In 2023, Resonac had 15 lost-time injuries among employees in Japan, including those of its partner companies, and 31 lost-time injuries overseas, recording a year-on-year increase from nine in Japan and 28 outside the country. Analysis by accident type shows a trend toward more cuts, falls, lower back pain due to improper posture and chemical injuries in Japan and more accidents outside the country that involved employees being pinned by or caught in equipment, lower back pain due to improper posture, injury due to flying/falling objects, falls and cuts.
In the first half of 2023, we worked to increase employees’ safety awareness in relation to injuries by enhancing risk detection activities and safety management and by providing them with safety education, including communicating the importance of wearing protective gloves and glasses. In 2024, we will launch a “safety model line project” toward zero occupational accidents and subsequently roll it out across the board.
We are also continuously implementing the following measures:

• We will establish a safety management code of conduct for managers, a safety code of conduct for employees, and ten rules for safe behavior and provide education on the same, and offer opportunities to reaffirm the convictions that "safety and compliance take precedence over everything else" and that “accidents and disasters can absolutely be reduced to zero”.
• We will initiate a Safety Communication Program (SCP) under which managers identifying unsafe acts or unsafe behaviors will have conversations with the employees involved on why these are happening and will work together with them to improve the level of safety.
• We have set guidelines for risk assessment and carry out risk assessments on occupational health and safety and on chemical substances to reduce the related workplace risks and prevent chemical substance-related incidents.
• In order to gain deeper insight into the fundamental causes of occupational accidents that have occurred and to promote inherent safety, we are adopting an engineering analysis method. We also collect, analyze and share information about minor incidents as well as lost-time and non-lost-time incidents to prevent their reoccurrence.
• For the development of human resources with high safety awareness, we are reviewing our safety education system and working to provide employees with more educational opportunities.
• In consideration of the fact that incidents involving elderly workers, such as falls, show a tendency to increase, we are holding seminars on preventing falls, which include physical tests and exercise, and are also launching measures in reference to the “Age-Friendly Guidelines” set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
• We provide employees of partner companies with safety education before they start working at our sites. We also set detailed rules on environmental and safety management to be followed by partner companies.
• We provide ongoing support and updated safety instructions to partner companies whose employees work permanently at our sites through information sharing, opinion exchange and joint patrols via the joint safety council and through environmental and safety audits of partner companies. For workers engaged in short-term construction on our premises, we check their safety measures in advance and provide them with adequate safety education when they start working on our premises, as well as conducting on-site patrols and holding safety meetings for the safe completion of the work.