Reducing Occupational Accidents and Property Damage

Material Issue

Occupational health and safety

Policy

The Fuji Oil Group has set out the Basic Policy of Safety and Health.*

GovernanceGRI:3-3

The Fuji Oil Group’s Sustainability Committee*1 is an advisory body to the Board of Directors that is chaired by the President and CEO. It deliberates on and monitors the material ESG issue*2 of Occupational Health and Safety from a multi-stakeholder perspective, and recommends the results to the Board. The ESG Division Head oversees the progress of initiatives for Reducing Occupational Accidents and Property Damage, a priority action in this material issue.

Strategy

Ensuring the safety of our employees is our social responsibility as a corporate group and is essential to the Group’s sustainable management. Our initiatives to promote occupational health and safety in a rigorous manner directly contribute to the health of our employees.
Failure to take appropriate measures increases the risks of shutdowns due to serious accidents, loss of social credibility, and other unfavorable outcomes. On the other hand, working on these initiatives provides a safe workplace and more opportunities for stable employment and production.
In the Fuji Oil Group Management Philosophy, the first of our values that inform our actions is “safety, quality, and the environment.” Among these three, the Group places top priority on “occupational safety” to achieve continuous growth. Based on the Basic Policy of Safety and Health, we strive to protect the lives and health of our employees and all the people working at our business sites, and eliminating work-related accidents.

Risk managementGRI:403-1, 2, 4, 7

Occupational health and safety audits

Occupational health and safety risks are designated as significant Group-wide risks.* We work to eliminate accidents and raise the level of health and safety management. This is accomplished by conducting occupational health and safety audits at each production site to assess risks.
Planned audits are conducted each year at business sites in Japan and Group companies outside Japan. In FY2023, nine production sites in Japan were audited by the Safety, Quality, and Environment Audit Team of the Safety, Quality, and Environment Audit Office at Fuji Oil Co., Ltd., the regional headquarters in Japan. For Group companies outside Japan, the next occupational health and safety audits are planned based on the results of their previous audits. In FY2023, the Production Productivity Management Group conducted audits of nine production sites. At production sites where audits have been conducted, progress checks and follow-up checks are carried out after improvements have been made in response to the issues identified. We aim to eliminate work-related accidents at our sites through this ongoing cycle of audits, improvements, and follow-up.

Auditing at Fuji Oil (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

Auditing at Blommer Chocolate Manufacturing (Shanghai) Company Ltd. (China)

Multilingual reminders

At Group companies outside Japan, we display safety-related reminders in multiple languages so that employees who use different languages can also carry out their work safely.

Example of a sign at Fuji Global Chocolate (M) Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia)

Dialogue between labor and management

To evaluate and improve our risk management and countermeasures related to occupational health and safety, we attach greater importance to dialogue between labor and management. For example, Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. holds a monthly Safety and Health Committee meeting in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement, in order to discuss employees’ expectations and concerns regarding occupational health and safety.

Acquisition of Management Certifications

Management certification status

Supplier safety and health

The provision of safe and hygienic workplaces for all workers, legal compliance and risk management are stipulated in the Occupational Safety and Health section of the Fuji Oil Group Supplier Code of Conduct*1 published in April 2021. We ask all our suppliers to agree to this policy and submit a consent form. The third edition of the CSR Procurement Guidelines*2 (revised in November 2021) applies to suppliers of Group companies in Japan. In the section regarding Respect for Human Rights and Consideration for Occupational Safety and Health, we ask that suppliers maintain and improve a safe and healthy work environment, and we confirm through a questionnaire that the products and services procured by Group companies in Japan are in line with these procurement guidelines.

EducationGRI:403-3, 5

Our Group implements measures based on the belief that the prevention of labor accidents at manufacturing sites is one of our most important responsibilities. We conduct checks to identify dangerous operations and situations that could lead to accidents and take necessary measures. We also promote the PDCA cycle for risk management, work to identify near-miss incidents, and implement the use of safety observation cards to suggest potential hazards and areas with safety concerns. Through these and other initiatives, the whole Group is committed to working together to prevent occupational accidents.

Disseminating safety-related information

In recognition of the importance of raising safety awareness among employees throughout the Group, we share warnings and information about occupational accidents that have occurred within the Group. Group companies give employees daily safety warnings using electric bulletin boards or information boards.

Education to improve safety awareness

We believe that heightening our employees’ sensitivity to danger leads to improved safety awareness. We set up safety experience rooms at Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. and Fuji Oil (Zhang Jia Gang) Co., Ltd. (China), and let employees at Group companies outside Japan experience dangerous conditions through VR devices. VR devices are permanently installed at Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. and Fuji Oil (Zhaoqing) Co., Ltd. (China).
Group companies in Japan are aiming to improve safety awareness through simulation classes and safety education that enable employees to learn from past incidents. In this way, rules are observed and mistakes from the past are avoided. We are also working to create a safe and secure work environment by conducting emergency drills for natural disasters and installing motion sensor lights that are also useful when evacuating during a power outage.
Group companies outside Japan are also engaged in various safety initiatives, including emergency drills, education on the effectiveness of risk prediction training, safety communication activities,*1 and safety meetings.*2

  • *1 Activities to raise employees’ safety awareness by handing down knowledge of past labor accidents and countermeasures to younger generations.

    *2 Meetings held before the day’s work begins to inform workers about safety matters that require special attention that day.

VR simulator at Fuji Vegetable Oil, (USA)

Metrics and targets

At least 90% complete At least 60% complete Less than 60% complete

FY2023 Goals FY2023 Results Self-assessment
Zero serious accidents*1 Zero serious accidents occurred
Zero serious property damage accidents*2 Zero serious property damage accidents occurred

  • *1 Accidents resulting in death, permanent disability to limbs or other body parts or long-term hospitalization (60 days or more).

  • *2 Explosions, fires, or physical accidents resulting in an order from a public authority to shut down the entire site.

Analysis

We safeguard against similar accidents by sharing information on occupational accidents and property damage that occurred within the Group to raise safety awareness. We also believe that using VR helps improve safety awareness by simulating danger for our employees. We will continue to work on enhancing safety awareness through safety experience training using VR at Group companies outside Japan.

Next steps

Our goal for FY2024 is once again to eliminate the occurrence of serious accidents and serious property damage accidents. We believe that improving the safety awareness of employees is the key to achieving this goal. To address this issue, we will work on the following measures also in FY2024.

  • Safeguard against similar accidents by sharing information on occupational accidents and property damage that occurred within the Group
  • Encourage sharing of safety information between Group companies
  • Continue initiatives that help raise safety awareness, such as adopting safety VR simulators

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