Occupational Health and Safety
Our Approach
SUBARU regards occupational health and safety as a critical management issue. Our fundamental philosophy in this area is “SUBARU makes health and safety the first priority in all our work,” and we have formulated the Basic Health and Safety Policy. Furthermore, each of SUBARU’s affiliated companies in Japan and overseas establishes their own occupational health and safety policies in line with their business details, regional characteristics, and local laws and regulations, and implements initiatives based on these policies.
Basic Health and Safety Policy
With the aim of reducing industrial accidents, traffic accidents, diseases, and fires and other disasters to zero, every individual will strive to create a safe, comfortable workplace through efforts to improve facilities, environments, and work methods, and to enhance management and awareness, based on a shared recognition of the importance of health and safety.
Central Health and Safety Committee
Established in April 2002
Management System
SUBARU established the Central Health and Safety Committee, which is composed of members from management (executive officer in charge of health and safety and the manager in charge of on-site health and safety) and from the labor union, with a view to protecting employees (including non-regular employees) and our affiliates from industrial accidents and illness and improving the working environment. The committee, which meets for deliberations three times a year, is chaired by an executive officer and its vice-chairperson is elected from the Company’s labor union’s membership. Its deliberations primarily include occupational safety, occupational health, traffic safety, and fire and disaster prevention.
At the committee’s first meeting, participants check the fiscal year’s activities, including the year’s Basic Health and Safety Policy. At its second meeting, the committee summarizes the first half of the year by quantifying items from each business site and shares actions for the second half. At the third meeting, the committee summarizes the fiscal year based on numerical data and discusses health and safety policies (occupational safety, occupational health, traffic safety, and fire and disaster prevention) for the following fiscal year.
As for affiliated companies and resident contractors on our premises under the control of the Site Health and Safety Committee, we provide them with related information as necessary for the promotion of their occupational health and safety activities. At the Gunma Plant, we also provide support for overseas occupational health and safety activities by initiating regular information sharing meetings on health and safety with Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. and affiliated companies overseas.
Health and Safety Organization Chart
Initiatives
At the start of every fiscal year, SUBARU notifies managers and supervisors about the health and safety policies for the fiscal year via heads of each site through their respective Health and Safety Committees. This is so that all employees can share the health and safety activity targets and plans as a unified team and raise their awareness about the prevention of industrial accidents, road safety, and health management.
Prevention of Industrial Accidents
Wearing of the safety declaration badge
In order to elevate safety awareness among SUBARU employees, all employees of SUBARU and its affiliated companies wear the safety declaration badge, on which it is clearly stated, “I always check for safety before performing any action.”
Promoting the practice of pointing and calling
For the prevention of mistakes and human error, we urge employees at all our sites to practice pointing and calling at the crosswalks and other places on the premises as the basis for occupational health and safety, thereby raising their awareness about the importance of safe behaviors and increasing the accuracy of their safety checks.
Education at the Hands-on Safety Dojo
At the Gunma Plant’s Hands-on Safety Dojo, the SUBARU Group is providing health and safety education not only to its own full-time and part-time employees, but also to temporary employees, employees of contractors and outsourcing companies working on our premises, employees involved in construction work on our premises, and employees of suppliers.
Approximately 2,000 employees annually participate in simulator safety training, reproducing conditions that would occur in the event of accidents such as a fall, cut, pinch, or entrapment. In addition, we are taking actions to cultivate hazard sensitivity from the time employees join the Company by introducing them to protective gear used in the field and teaching them the rules about equipment use.
Health and Safety Slogan Contest
SUBARU invites all employees to submit safety slogans to be used in the following fiscal year with the aim of raising awareness of health and safety. Slogans are solicited under four themes: occupational safety, occupational health, traffic safety, and health management. In FYE March 2023, around 17,000 slogans were received from across the Company.
Prevention of Industrial Accident Recurrence
As for industrial accidents and close calls that happened at our sites and affiliated companies, the department that has experienced the incident shall disclose related information to other departments on the premises and affiliated companies via the department in charge of health and safety at the site.
For FYE March 2023, we had 22 industrial accidents, of which three were lost-time accidents and none were fatal accidents. The accident frequency rate was 0.60. Although the number of lost-time accidents decreased, the overall number of accidents increased. Accidents were mainly caused by unsafe behavior and improper use of protective gear and other items. In FYE March 2024, we strive to reduce accidents by raising the level of safety awareness of each and every employee based on the principle of self-responsibility for self-protection. In addition, each of our sites has a full range of hands-on training facilities, and we also focus on health and safety education for regular employees as well as non-regular employees. Furthermore, we are working to strengthen our daily accident prevention activities. Our policy is to use analysis of accidents per site to enforce more rigorous rule compliance to standardized work across the SUBARU Group, have workers wear appropriate protective gear, ensure appropriate signaling and callouts, and other “rigorous compliance to basic matters (back to basics).”
Reporting Line for Industrial Accidents
Occurrence of Work Related Accidents and Accident Frequency Rate (Non-consolidated)
Road Safety
In order to prevent employees from getting involved in any traffic accidents while working, commuting, or enjoying their private time, we are implementing a range of measures as follows:
- Conduct awareness-raising activity, including introducing the cases of past accidents and showing a video on road safety, before the start of a long vacation, targeting all employees of the Automotive Business and the Aerospace Company, many of whom commute by car.
- Organize a lecture by the chief of the local police station to improve employees’ driving manners.
- Provide new employees with hands-on education using training institutions.
- Conduct psychological driving aptitude tests and use a driving recorder to help employees recognize their driving habits.
Unifying Initiatives at the Group Level
We have established the SUBARU Safety and Environment Council which we operate in collaboration with each of our business partners to ensure that all parties, including our Group companies in Japan can strengthen health and safety in unison. The council works with participating partners to strengthen and enhance safety and disaster prevention management and environmental preservation, including through an annual general meeting, information sharing in the event of a disaster or traffic accident involving lost work time, training for new employees, supervisors, and full-time managers, and the exchange of information on energy conservation, waste reduction, and pollution prevention initiatives.
Initiatives by the Central Health and Safety Committee
The Central Health and Safety Committee is responsible for overseeing safety at SUBARU, working in partnership with on-site health and safety coordinators and health promoters. In its work, the committee fosters health management measures along with occupational health and safety activities so that all employees and executives can work healthily, soundly, and vigorously, take on challenges, and achieve growth. The committee takes these actions in the belief that the health of employees and their families is essential for all our business operations. SUBARU works with the relevant units within the Human Resources Department to support the physical and mental health of its employees as well as to build a healthy organization and promote flexible working styles, and more. By doing this, it creates the underpinnings of a more comfortable working environment necessary for greater employee engagement. Similarly, we promote health management initiatives for employees and executives of all of SUBARU’s affiliated companies in Japan and overseas, in accordance with the business domain of each company and regional characteristics. And so, we work every day to provide employees with safe and comfortable workplaces, with the constant mindset toward enabling them to cheerfully leave home for work and also cheerfully return home after work.
Initiatives at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc.
Since its founding, SIA has acted toward workplace safety as an item of utmost priority, on par with quality, and maintains the lowest occupational illness rate in the U.S. automotive industry. This commitment is evident in SIA’s receipt of the Governor's Workplace Safety Award from the Indiana Department of Labor, which is given to companies that are recognized for outstanding efforts to eliminate workplace injuries and illnesses. SIA is currently in preparations to obtain ISO 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems) certification in its goals to maintain a safe and healthy workplace.