Occupational Health and Safety

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Initiatives

Occupational Health and Safety Initiatives

To ensure safety at its operating companies, the JFE Group regularly reports to the Board of Directors, which provides direction and supervision. It also holds discussions on health and safety with the labor union through the Occupational Health and Safety Committee.

To achieve our goal of zero workplace fatalities under the Seventh Medium-term Business Plan, the JFE Group particularly prioritizes safety investments (around 10 billion yen per year Group-wide) to reduce risks by making workplaces inherently safe. We will also promote multifaceted occupational employee health and safety activities, including detection and monitoring, by harnessing advanced IT solutions.

The JFE Group also organizes seminars for newly appointed managers and supervisors to provide information on the Industrial Safety and Health Act and risk assessment regulations and on formulating work plans and policies for health and safety management. In the construction operations department, we offer programs for local superintendents in charge of construction work (Overall Safety and Health Controller) centered on the Industrial Safety and Health Act as well as related regulations for subcontractors and the Construction Business Act (409 participants in 2022). We also conduct new employee training and position-specific training on mental health (751 participants in 2022).

In 2023, we are following two basic strategies: practicing autonomous safety activities while strengthening communication between employees and business associates and taking action based on the Group's Health Declaration. In accordance with our goal of achieving zero accidents Group-wide and zero accidents at each workplace, management supervisors make a point to visit work sites every day, while workers are striving to handle their tasks with discipline. We are also proactively applying IT, such as by introducing safety monitoring systems* for safety management.

In order to more independently and systematically promote occupational health and safety management throughout the organization, we established an occupational health and safety management system in accordance with the ISO 45001 international standard and obtained ISO 45001 certification (JIS Q 45001) for all our construction and operating sites. We will continue making workplaces safer and healthier through an ongoing and effective operation of the occupational health and safety management system.

Certified Sites

To mitigate or prevent disaster risks, JFE Steel conducts risk assessments at the planning stage for new facilities as well as prior to periodic and as-needed repairs. We also constantly strive to make each facility inherently safe so as to lower the risk level for our workers.

We respond to industrial accidents by setting up a disaster investigation committee to determine the cause and offer recommendations for improvement to the department in charge of implementing countermeasures. At the same time, we inform the relevant departments and labor union through the Occupational Safety and Health Committee, while the department in charge implements and completes countermeasures, which is a mechanism designated by company-wide rules. In the event of severe accidents, a response is deployed across the company, and a standard progress report is submitted to Corporate Officer Council until countermeasures have been completed. This practice has also been standardized across the entire company. In the event of other incidents, we discuss and determine the need to deploy a company-wide response with top management before taking action.

In addition, we immediately report industrial accidents to the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) under the required guidelines. We file an update once we have determined the cause and decide on countermeasures. In the event of severe accidents, we promptly submit a report on safety, disaster prevention and environmental issues to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and the JISF.

*A system that provides managers with real-time information about, for example, carbon monoxide concentration and oxygen concentration along with worker locations.

In addition to setting up governance organizations for health and safety at each operating site to comply with the Industrial Safety and Health Act and in line with the type of work and number of employees, JFE Engineering has established a governance structure for health and safety at each operational headquarters to facilitate and effectively implement company-wide management at its construction and operating sites and manufacturing plants. JFE Engineering strives to eliminate disasters at all suppliers and Group companies by establishing priority items to be shared across the company and to which all employees and all staff at suppliers adhere. It also endeavors to identify sources of danger as well as safety measures through risk assessments aligned with the particular characteristics of each individual operational headquarters. Meanwhile, it promotes physical and mental health and the creation of comfortable working environments as a means of ensuring the health of employees and bringing occupational health to an overall higher level.

In the event that an industrial accident occurs, occupational health and safety managers will meet to determine the cause and consider countermeasures that will be deployed across the company. Since 2016, the company has been operating an occupational health and safety management system (ISO 45001 certified) for its construction activities in Japan and overseas as well as its manufacturing operations at the Tsurumi and Tsu Works. As a new initiative, JFE Engineering applies IT solutions promoting occupational health and safety, including monitoring and detection by multiple approaches.

JFE Shoji is implementing the following activities to eliminate unsafe operations that could lead to severe accidents for achieving zero severe accidents at its coil centers and other processing sites.

Furthermore, for each of its Group companies, JFE Shoji assigns a safety manager to spearhead these efforts to raise the level of health and safety activities. To ensure that all JFE Shoji Group companies operate under the same values, safety managers meet every other month to share knowledge and information on occupational health and safety.

All lost-work injuries must be reported to the top management from the president of each Group company as part of the JFE Shoji Group-wide effort to address safety management. Annual safety awards are also presented to encourage employees to actively engage in health and safety activities. Through these initiatives, the company will raise the level of safety management within the JFE Shoji Group and continue to maintain safe working environments.

Health and Productivity Management

Company-wide Targets for Each Operating Company

We are working on health and productivity management by setting Company-wide goals for each of our operating companies, in addition to KPIs common to the JFE Group.

*¹Preliminary figures

*²Actual rates of providing specific health guidance will be added as soon as they are confirmed.

*JFE Steel manages the rate of complete exams, obesity rate, and smoking rate on a calendar year basis.

Physical Health Initiatives

Maintaining and Promoting the Health of Employees' Families

The JFE Group works with the health insurance union to maintain and improve the health of employees and their families by, for example, encouraging spouses to undergo health examinations. The rate of health examinations for dependents (age 40 or older) has been steadily increasing to 51.5% in FY2022, up 13.9 points from 37.6% in FY2014.

For employee health data, please refer to the following.

Employee Health Data

Mental Healthcare

The JFE Group conducts four basic initiatives to maintain the mental health of employees: “self-care” for workers who strive to remain aware of stress and take preventive measures; “care by management supervisors” who provide advice to subordinates; “care by industrial health staff” who support employees, managers and supervisors; and “care by human resources outside workplaces,” including specialist clinics and individuals.

JFE's health insurance union also provides mental health counseling, including a 24-hour hotline for employees and their families (spouse and dependents).

Initiatives on Health Issues

We operate a health management system for continuously and effectively managing the health of all employees, including those on overseas assignments and business trips and those studying abroad.

We particularly seek to ensure that employees working abroad, under healthcare systems that differ from those in Japan, can maintain a healthy lifestyle, along with their accompanying family members, by conducting health checkups and vaccinations before they move overseas, in accordance with Company-wide regulations. In a proactive effort to prevent infections, we also provide information on global health issues such as COVID-19, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during assignment briefings. We will continue to monitor and appropriately respond to global health issues.

Promoting Health and Productivity Management to Maintain and Improve Health

To drive key initiatives for maintaining and improving the health of employees and their families, JFE Steel launched the Health and Productivity Management Promotion WG upon the establishment of its Group Health Declaration in 2016 and is monitoring the achievement of medium- to long-term goals. Through these ongoing activities, we want all employees to work healthily and vigorously and to establish a health culture in which every employee practices activities on their own initiative to maintain and improve their health.

The Health and Productivity Management Promotion WG first focused on physical health and established key initiatives regarding: (1) thorough implementation and reinforcement of physical examinations, (2) preventive health measures, (3) establishment of sound exercise and health habits, and (4) non-smoking and segregated smoking activities. We are now implementing activities with all of our operating sites.

Health and Productivity Management Promotion WG

Active Exercise™

JFE Steel business sites offer the Active Exercise™ program, designed by West Japan Works to help people increase their physical strength and prevent injuries from falling. The program's effectiveness in preventing occupational accidents and improving health has even attracted attention outside the company, so it is being actively shared not only among Group companies but also with on-site suppliers and companies across a broad range of industries. To prevent accidents such as falls and back injury, we participate in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the SAFE Consortium as well as activities such as Active Exercise™ and Safe Physical Fitness™ Functional Tests.

Engineering Activities for Boosting Health Based on Health Checkup Data

JFE Engineering is pursuing initiatives for improving health focused on five domains, including sleep, smoking and obesity issues extracted from past health checkup data, along with cancer and mental health.

In FY2020, we appointed a supervising industrial physician and reorganized the company-wide health and productivity management promotion system while also providing support to Group companies.

Initiatives Based on Past Health Checkup Data

Detecting Illnesses at an Early Stage, Maintaining and Promoting Health for Employees and their Families

JFE Shoji believes that the health of employees and their families holds the key to the further development of the company and is therefore creating workplace environments in which employees can work with vigor.

Past Initiatives

Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The JFE Group recognizes the importance of social infrastructure that manufactures and supplies the necessary goods for society and fully understands the purpose and content of the government's basic policy to respond to COVID-19. We place the highest priority on employee health and have taken action from the perspective of the basic approach to preventing infection and specific measures to be taken as outlined in the guidelines issued by the Japan Business Federation. While taking into account the conditions of factories and other factors, we have worked to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and have continued to fulfill our role as a social infrastructure, including providing vaccinations at workplaces.

In response to changes in the infection rate, we have responded in a timely and appropriate manner in accordance with each request issued by the government and Japan Business Federation.

Response after COVID-19 Was Reclassified as Class 5

Since COVID-19 was reclassified as Class 5 in May 2023, we have been responding in accordance with government guidelines, and every Group company has returned to normal working rules. Nevertheless, all employees are encouraged to take basic infection prevention measures, such as washing hands and gargling. As mutant strains or new infections occur in the future, we will use all of our experience in responding to COVID-19 while acting in accordance with prevailing government policy.