Health and Safety

Definition

Health and Safety refers to efforts to protect worker health such as by improving work conditions and the work environment, and safety such as by accident prevention. Companies are required by law to ensure the health and safety of employees.

Industrial Safety and Health Law provide detailed conditions that a company must meet to ensure the health and safety of employees *1. In 1999, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released the "Guideline for Occupational Health & Safety Management System (OHSMS)" with recommendations to improve occupational health and safety standards using the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle method. Employee health and safety is an important CSR issue and the implementation of the SA 8000, the global standard for managing human rights, has been strongly promoted. SA 8000 cites health and safety as one of its nine core requirements.

The standard requires that 'the company shall provide a safe and healthy working environment and shall take adequate steps to prevent accidents and injury arising out of work', 'the company shall appoint a senior management representative responsible for the health and safety of all employees and accountable for the implementation of the Health and Safety elements', 'the company shall provide regular training on work health and safety for all employees', 'the company shall establish systems to detect, avoid and respond to potential threats to the health and safety of all employees, 'the company shall provide clean bathrooms, access to potable water', 'the company shall ensure that, if provided for personnel, dormitory facilities are clean, safe , and meet the basic needs of the personnel' *2.