Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety
Policies
In order to maintain a working environment in which employees can work with both a healthy mind and body, “Health and Safety Management Rules” have been established for application to the SoftBank Corp. Group. Under a system centered on the Occupational Health and Safety Committee which is composed of both the worker's and management sides, we comply with laws, regulations, and company rules related to occupational health and safety and at the same time we are working to continuously improve and enhance our health and safety activities such as setting target values, monitoring performance, and working on company-wide and individual workplace initiatives to achieve our goals. Occupational Health and Safety Committee includes members representing employees from each organization, and through discussions, identifies priority risks to be addressed, sets targets, and formulates specific action plans. Moreover, health and safety initiatives are used to improve the workplace through presentations on good practices in their own departments and introductions of initiatives at each of the multiple workplaces.
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- *Scope: SoftBank Corp. and its Group companies and base station construction contractors
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Major initiatives
Initiatives for employees
Health maintenance and improvement
We aim to maintain and improve the health of our employees in accordance with the “Basic Policy on Mental and Physical Health Promotion”. Moreover, the health of each and every employee, both physically and mentally, is the driving force for the realization of the company's and individual dreams and aspirations, and we have positioned the maintenance and improvement of employee health as one of our important management issues and have adopted the “Health Management Declaration”.
In-house risk checking and audits
As part of our risk assessment efforts, we ensure the health and safety of the employees by regularly implementing stress checks while also checking the employee work environment and job descriptions through workplace audits by an appointed industrial physician at a frequency of about once a month to identify latent hazards regarding occupational health and safety. The results of the risk assessment are reported to each workplace, and we undertake improvement activities directed at risk reduction for matters which are determined to be high risk. At the same time, safety competitions and video-based safety education activities are carried out together with the telecommunications construction companies to achieve zero accidents during construction.
Safety measures for disasters and other emergencies
A system is in place to ensure the safety of employees in the event of an earthquake, typhoon, or other emergency. In the event of an emergency, a task force will be established as necessary, and appropriate actions will be taken in accordance with the rules and regulations established by the company. To prepare for emergencies, we also engage in regular in-house training and safety measures for our facilities. In addition, as a safety measure for normal times, we stockpile drinking water, food, and other daily necessities at our locations nationwide to create an environment that ensures the health of our employees in the event of a disaster.
Prevention of occupational accidents
In preventing the occurrence of occupational accidents among employees, we recognize the importance of identifying potential risks of occupational accident factors. As a result of the identification of potential risks based on past occurrences and the likelihood of their occurrence over the medium to long term, and the assessment that multiplies the frequency of occurrence and the severity of the impact if they occur, we consider “occupational accidents in business-use vehicles accidents” to be a risk that should be addressed as a priority.
Initiatives to prevent serious accidents
We are implementing various safety measures to achieve our goal of “zero serious accidents involving business-use vehicles”.
- ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) equipped vehicles deployed
- Operation management by telematics
- Confirmation of sobriety of all drivers before and after the start of driving and record keeping
- Prohibition of smartphone use while driving, including hands-free calls
- Notification of Driver Qualifications (every fiscal year)
- Mandatory safe driving education (every fiscal year, accident Causer), accident prevention awareness (monthly)
Response to occupational accidents
Occupational accidents resulting from business-use vehicles accidents are reported through a dedicated reporting channel for occupational accidents. A process is in place for reporting cases with serious consequences, such as death or serious injury, or suspected violations of laws and regulations, through the Compliance Reporting Route as well. We take appropriate action (investigation, response to findings, etc.) against occupational accidents, including drive recorder analysis at the time of an accident, to prevent recurrence.
Health and safety management
for employees
and accompanying family members posted overseas
In order to ensure the health and safety of employees and their family members posted overseas, such as providing information on consultations with industrial physicians to employees prior to posting and requiring employees on assignment to undergo medical examinations upon their temporary return, we support our employees so that they can work overseas with peace of mind through a variety of initiatives, such as enrollment in medical consultation support services in the country of assignment, follow-up on mental, physical, and lifestyle issues through personnel interviews before, during, and after returning from an assignment, and safety confirmation in the event of an emergency for all overseas assignees and overseas business trip employees.
Initiatives targeting contractors
who undertake base station construction
Management of health and
safety
in the construction
of base stations
As a telecommunications provider, we manage safety in construction work ordered by our business partners.
Actions to identify and reduce significant safety risks
As a result of the assessment of possible safety risks in construction based on analysis of past accidents and data on causes of fatal accidents in the construction industry, we have identified “work at heights during base station construction” as a significant risk and have been working on it for a long time. For work at height, which is a significant risk, we are working to achieve our target of “zero serious accidents associated with construction work” by prioritizing risk reduction initiatives. Specifically, we have established our own rules, “Construction Safety Policy,” and strengthened on-site monitoring to eliminate hazards that workers may not be aware of and to ensure site safety. We also hold joint safety conventions with our business partners and conduct safety awareness activities through videos.
Safety inspections at construction sites
To prevent the accident from occurring in the workplace, safety inspections of construction sites are conducted by members of the inspection team designated by the regional engineering manager and the construction safety manager, according to an inspection plan prepared in advance. Inspections are based on the “Safety Inspection Check Sheet” to check construction site management conditions, proper worker assignments/behavior/work environment/documents, and other items. If there is a possibility of inducing a serious industrial accident, we will request an improvement report from our business partners and conduct a re-inspection.
The main conditions for conducting an inspection are the following.
- Hazardous work such as working at heights and working with heavy machinery
- New entrants and construction companies with limited experience in our company's construction
Response to occupational accidents in base station construction
and prevention of recurrence
Any occupational accidents that occur during base station construction are reported to the construction safety manager by the department in charge of construction, Respond appropriately to occupational accidents (investigation, response to findings, etc.), and we establish a system to immediately take measures to prevent recurrence. We are working to reduce the number of accidents by analyzing the circumstances of accidents that have occurred in the past and implementing the following four measures to prevent recurrence.
Declaration of a state of emergency
The program is issued in the event of a serious accident, and all departments are required to reinforce safety checks on similar work for a certain period of time.
Accident prevention review meeting
In order to make all accidents a personal matter, we hold review meetings to discuss and share measures to prevent recurrence regardless of the location of the accident.
Distribution of KY support book
We have prepared a KY Support Book, an easily understandable pamphlet summarizing points to prevent recurrence of 104 accidents that have occurred in the past, and distributed it to all construction companies.
Construction company monitoring
Meetings are held with construction companies to review safety measures and implementation.
Appointment of work safety coordinators
We have appointed a “Construction Safety Manager” to oversee the overall safety of workers at our company and our business partners who cooperate with us on construction projects. The construction safety manager leads the management of safety in base station construction and is responsible for various awareness-raising and promotion activities. Including the formulation of safe work policies, development of management methods, training for workers, monitoring of each affiliated company, and planning of new measures to ensure the safety of on-site workers, including those of our business partners.
Support for work crews
In addition to sufficiently ensuring the safety of the work environment, SoftBank Corp. provides necessary safety equipment (e.g., protective gear) to our employees. We also begin construction work after educating the workers involved in the ordered construction about the rules for using the work tools and equipment.
Risk analysis and issue identification
2005- | Establishment of construction safety policy and assignment of full time supervisors. |
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2006- | Safety recognition for construction companies. |
2008- | Promote the use of full harnesses (prior to legalization) Deployment of safety slogans (every quarter) |
2014- | Full harness safety belts are now fully mandatory. |
2017- | A national safety convention (hosted by the company and attended by business partners) |
In addition to the above measures, we are also implementing the Safety Pulse Survey and the Continuous Zero Accident Award since fiscal 2020.
Safety Pulse Survey | The Safety Pulse Survey is designed to visualize the management status of individual construction sites by tracing the status of key safety management items implemented by business partners on a monthly basis. |
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Continuous Accident Free Award | The Continuous Accident Free Award is given to business partners that have been accident free for a long time and we commend them for their stable business operations and reliable safety management know-how. |
Supplier ethics and rules of conduct
In order to reduce occupational health & safety risks in our supply chain, we have established items related to occupational health & safety in our “Supplier Ethics and Rules of Conduct” and request our suppliers to comply with them. When we start doing business with a new supplier, we sign a basic transaction agreement that includes a commitment to comply with the “Supplier Ethics and Rules of Conduct”, and we also check the compliance status of existing suppliers with this Code through periodic sustainability procurement surveys.
Target
Serious accidents involving employees or at construction sites | 0 |
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Ratio of smokers | 1% or more decrease from the previous year Less than 20% (FY2030) |