Occupational Health and Safety - Management system
Basic ideas and policies
Through guidelines for Responsible Care based on the purpose and values which constitute our corporate philosophy, the Resonac Group has been ensuring each employee’s safety and health and promoting the development of a workplace environment in which all employees (including employees who belong to partner companies) can work safely, peacefully and comfortably.
Since 2023, we have unified the both companies’ safety policies and defined the basic philosophy “safety as our top priority”. Moreover, we have renewed our safety code of conduct and 10 safety principles for managers and employees. On the basis of responsibilities which are dependent on each position, we practice safe operation and lead the activities for the target of zero incidents.
Promotion system
The Resonac Group manages occupational health and safety under its Responsible Care promotion system, regarding it as part of Responsible Care activities. The president of Resonac Holdings Corporation assumes ultimate responsibility for the Group’s occupational health and safety. Under the leadership of the president, each of the divisions and sites appoints their own environment & safety managers to conduct health and safety management activities, receiving support from the administrative departments of the head office. Basically every other week, the Management Committee is briefed on safety-related activities of the Group and gives relevant instructions, which will be conveyed to the divisions and sites for implementation. Moreover, at each site, the head of the site and the environment & safety manager lead occupational health and safety activities based on their Environment and safety action plans.
The Labor-Management Committee, which is composed of the president and other executives as well as representatives of the labor union, meets annually to discuss issues related to occupational health and safety. Also, in line with the Industrial Safety and Health Act of Japan, each of our sites has a safety and health committee and other organizations in place to conduct safety and health activities for employees through a concerted effort by labor and management, such as discussing the related issues and conducting workplace patrols.
Implementation of occupational health and safety management systems
The Resonac Group is managing and reducing occupational accident-related risks posed to its business management in an appropriate manner by using occupational health and safety management systems, for which the Group is promoting the acquisition of certification and fostering improvements. We have these management systems regularly assessed by external certification bodies to keep them up to date. Moreover, the systems are implemented at each site through a PDCA cycle to further promote the related activities.
Educational system
We deem it urgently necessary to increase the safety sensitivity of managers, supervisors and workers to eliminate industrial accidents and to prevent the retirement of experienced employees and replacement of staff from resulting in any degradation in safety and environmental management at our sites. Accordingly, we make and implement annual safety education plans for each of our sites and check their learning levels. We also give support for the educational curriculum of our partner companies in a planned manner toward the elimination of industrial accidents at those companies.
The following shows the occupational safety-related training provided by the head office. Those participating in the training from the sites make use of what they have learned through the training to conduct safety activities at their respective workplaces.
Since the middle of 2020, we have shifted from offline collective training to online training as a new training style that is also appropriate in terms of dealing with COVID-19.
Number of participants in the occupational health and safety training provided by the head office in 2021
Held labor-management safety training in 2021
On November 18, a total of 104 people participated in the training, with two representatives each from the labor union and management being sent from each of former Showa Denko’s sites. This online event was held to give participants deeper insight into the improvement of communication, which was the theme of the previous training.
In the event, presentations were made on examples of communication improvement activities conducted at the sites, and Michio Yoshida, honorary professor at Kumamoto University, gave a lecture on workplace communication. Participants were then divided into groups to discuss the issues and exchange information, both between sites and between labor and management.
After the event, labor and management set the targets to be pursued to improve communication at their respective sites in and after 2022, and activities are now being conducted at the sites for the achievement of the targets.
Joint training for internal auditors for ISO
In 2021, joint training for internal auditors for ISO 14001 and 45001 was held online four times each.
Compared with offline collective training, online training delivered benefits in terms of saving time and money. However, participants provided quite a lot of critical feedback about the online setting, including “Difficult to ask questions and express opinions” and “Hard to understand the content.” In response, in the latter half of the training, participants were given time to ask one another questions about the content in the group work, which helped them deepen their understanding of the details. Going forward, we will continue to hold this training online, while making improvements to remedy the shortcomings of the online environment.