Occupational health and safety

Occupational safety and health is one of the most important themes in the DOWA Group’s efforts to leverage its business toward sustainability. Therefore, the Company conducts activities based on the basic philosophy of “safety takes priority over everything” grounded on annual plans formulated from risk management planning for all businesses domestic and overseas. The DOWA Group’s safety and health activities cover all workers involved, including subcontractors and contractors.

Under the Group’s system for promoting safety management, the DOWA Holdings Environment & Safety Department selects safety and environment personnel from each operating company who work together to conduct safety management activities. The director in charge of human resources at DOWA Holdings is responsible for the safety and health management activities. They promote these activities throughout the Group while developing and building a system to promote them in the human resources departments, safety departments, occupational health physicians, and health insurance associations of each Group company, while holding regular exchanges of opinions with labor unions.
The Sustainability Subcommittee holds Groupwide discussions on occupational safety and health. Matters recognized as important by the Sustainability Subcommittee are reported to the Sustainability Committee, which is above the Sustainability Subcommittee, and further important matters are reported to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors provides oversight on safety and health.

The Safety and Environment Personnel Council brings together members of the DOWA Holdings Environment & Safety Department and environment managers and staff from each operating company and technical support company. The Council serves as a forum for discussing the promotion of Company-wide safety activities, sharing the details of each company’s activities, and supporting each other. The Council also holds discussions and shares direction for implementing measures in the Midterm Plan about twice a year. In the event of an accident, the Council verifies the facts, investigates the causes, and discusses emergency and permanent countermeasures, then provides feedback. The details and measures decided at this Council are disseminated by the safety and environment officer to each operating subsidiary, creating a system for rapid information sharing.
The Regional Safety Council has been set up as a place for communication, allowing members from each region to share examples of safety-related activities and ideas and consult with one another. The council is endeavoring to boost the level of safety-related activities by helping establish cooperative ties among different business fields.

At each of our sites, the Health and Safety Committee, whose members consist of the company and the trade union, meets once a month to share and study cases of basic accidents, conduct safety and health patrols and hold study sessions on health management in order to prevent hazards or health problems for workers. In addition, the Central Labour-Management Roundtable Meeting is held every year between the Company's management, the DOWA Federation of Trade Unions and representatives of trade unions at each location to exchange opinions and discuss employee safety and health, in order to build good labour-management relations.

The Group has established an Environment, Health, and Safety Management System (EHS-MS) that integrates the environmental management system (ISO 14001) and the occupational health and safety management system (ISO 45001), and aims to operate in compliance with ISO standards. In the Midterm Plan 2024, we aim to establish and operate an EHS-MS at all business sites and to have internal controls related to the environment and health and safety in place throughout the entire Group.
To achieve this goal, we have developed an EHS-MS manual that clarifies roles, responsibilities, and authority between DOWA Holdings and operating companies. Additionally, each operating subsidiary implements its own risk management plan and monitors the situation through the PDCA cycle.

Regarding work-related accidents (including contract and dispatch work) at the Group, when compared with the figures for business establishments of the same size in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s accident statistics, the frequency rate in fiscal 2023 was 1.58 for DOWA compared to an average of 1.29, and the severity rate was 0.03 for DOWA compared to an average of 0.08, meaning DOWA came in with an above average frequency rate in fiscal 2023. We will continue to implement a variety of safety measures and strengthen our safety management system.
In FY2023, 71 accidents with no leave of absence (72 injuries) and 35 accidents with lost time (35 injuries) occurred. Three lost-workday accidents (three workers' injuries) were caused by power transporters, etc., and were due to mistakes in handling the transporters (inadequate work areas, inadequate or non-observance of work procedures). Countermeasures include securing the work area (improvement of equipment) and re-education on haulage equipment (including training on procedures) to prevent recurrence.

Businesses where serious accidents occur may be designated as “Special Guidance Workplaces for Safety Management (designated sites)” under the Industrial Safety and Health Act. As a system similar to that of a “designated site,” the Group has established its own “semi-designated site” system, which actively supports improvements to the safety systems of each workplace. Safety personnel from DOWA Holdings and the applicable operating companies support and guide the “semidesignated sites” in improving their safety systems.
In addition, safety audits and health and safety diagnoses are carried out while incorporating objective perspectives from external consultants.
Additionally, we aim to improve the safety level of the entire Group by appropriately addressing issues within our own Company through discussions from various perspectives at the Safety and Environment Personnel Council.

We hold Safety and Health Achievement Presentations with the aim of sharing best practices regarding safety and health initiatives throughout the Group. At the fiscal 2023 presentation, all operating companies gave presentations on four themes: “Work improvement and equipment improvement,” “Safety education,” “Safety and health activities,” and “Improvement of management systems.” The presentation fostered lively discussions on the topics at hand. Additionally, materials and videos are posted on the in-Company portal site to make them available to those who were unable to attend the presentation.

The DOWA Group’s measures to prevent work-related accidents include efforts to enhance risk assessment activities and safety risk assessments for existing and new businesses. For new businesses we conduct safety audits and, since FY 2019, we have performed design and construction for new businesses based on the DOWA Technical Manufacturing Standard, a series of standardized rules for each stage of the process, including construction conceptualization and both basic and detailed design. We use a checklist to evaluate the status of necessary systems to ensure any anticipated environmental and occupational health and safety risks have been dealt with and to ascertain whether there is a proper understanding of residual risks, with proper countermeasures in place. After this process, confirmation and guidance are provided.

The entire Group has been implementing risk assessment initiatives Groupwide for many years. We have established Risk Assessment Guidelines to further improve our risk assessment practices. The guidelines clarify management’s responsibilities and set key points for conducting risk assessments starting from the source of the hazard.

●Key Points of Review in the Risk Assessment Guidelines

The DOWA Group has formulated the DOWA Group Health and Productivity Management Declaration and promotes a variety of health-related measures.

In order to “create a workplace where employees can work actively and with healthy body and mind”, as set out in the Health and Productivity Management Declaration, it is necessary to pursue not only good health check-up results, but also a state in which each and every employee is full of vitality. Therefore, we have set the following indicators (KPIs) and are working on various measures.

The Group takes health and productivity management measures for employees and their families beyond those required by law, such as gynecological and family checkups and subsidies for immunizations. We have also set up a special hotline for telephone and in-person consultations with a professional counselor (clinical psychologist).

In order to detect diseases at an early stage and prevent serious illnesses, efforts are made to ensure that 100% of employees receive regular health checkups, and recommendations and health guidance are given based on the results of health check-ups. The consultation rate for regular health checkups in 2023 was 98.7%.
Furthermore, a system for subsidising the costs of various medical check-ups, such as physical examinations, has been established to promote meticulous medical check-ups, including non-statutory test items. The amount invested by the DOWA Health Insurance Association in subsidising the cost of various medical checkups (physical examinations, etc.) in FY2023 was JPY 86 million.
Furthermore, we take seriously the health challenges posed by global infectious diseases (including pulmonary tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria), and our Group is proactively responding to these challenges. We alert our employees to these global health issues by educating those posted overseas about infection prevention. For early detection of tuberculosis, in particular, regular health checkups, including chest x-rays, are conducted.

We are working to prevent long working hours and encourage employees to take paid leave so that they can fulfil both their work and personal lives. As a result of Group-wide efforts to set targets, the paid leave utilisation rate is improving year by year.

To support the health of our employees, we have established systems such as a free smoking cessation programme. In addition, some Group companies have introduced cafeteria systems that can be used for various occasions, such as exercise and leisure, to encourage individual employees to improve their lifestyles.

The DOWA Group and some Group companies were named Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations (Large Enterprise Category) and Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Category) under the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization system operated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi.