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 based on this. 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.
Established in April 2020
Management System
Health and Safety Organization Chart
Central Health and Safety Committee
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's activities to foster health management measures along with occupational health and safety activities are designed to allow all employees to work healthily, soundly, and vigorously, take on challenges, and achieve growth.
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 policy for health and safety across all of SUBARU. 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.
Site Health and Safety Committee
At meetings of the Site Health and Safety Committee, affiliated companies and resident contractors on our premises under their purview are provided with relevant 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 responsible for doing business overseas.
Targets and Metrics
The number of both industrial accidents and traffic accidents at SUBARU in FYE March 2024 were almost the same as the previous year, and we will continue to take actions to reduce these going forward.
Occurrence of Work Related Accidents and Accident Frequency Rate (Non-consolidated)
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.
Key initiatives for FYE March 2024
- Occupational health and safety: Reinforcement of safety awareness:
Reviewing standardized work by managers, and reliably enforcing established safety rules by permeating their understanding. Improving workplace environments by absorbing employees' concerns. - Road traffic safety:
Driving behavior appropriate for an automobile manufacturer: Safe driving in consideration of physical condition (prevention of falling asleep at the wheel), and educational activities for cyclists and motorcyclists to prevent accidents (encouraging use of helmets). - Fire and disaster prevention:
Swift first response: Executing disaster drills to ensure appropriate actions in the event of an emergency.
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.
Occupational Health and Safety Education
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.
Training Center
At the Gunma Plant, we provide health and safety education at the plant’s Training Center when employees begin assignments there.
The 10-day curriculum includes practical skills training using mock lines corresponding to trainees’ assigned processes, providing education to cultivate hazard sensitivity in an environment that allows trainees to visualize real disasters.
Approximately 2,000 employees participate in this education each year before assignment to their respective workplaces.
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 2024, around 16,000 slogans were received.
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 2024, we had 21 industrial accidents, and although this was nearly the same number as the previous year, there was one fatal accident. In response to this fatal accident, we suspended operations at the relevant plant, took time to consider how to ensure the safety and security of our employees so that we would never have another similar accident, and then resumed operations after taking appropriate countermeasures. As a result of our investigations, we found issues and points for reflection in the systems and management methods that we had previously considered sufficient. All sites are taking measures and responding to these issues to transform into workplaces where people can work in safety.
Going forward, we will continue our initiatives in this area and strengthen our accident prevention activities.
Reporting Line for Industrial Accidents
SUBARU disseminates the following information in the event of an accident.
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 for Health Management
The Central Health and Safety Committee is the organization responsible for overseeing safety at SUBARU. It works in partnership with on-site health and safety coordinators and health promotion coordinators, fostering health management measures along with occupational health and safety activities so that all employees can work healthily, soundly, and vigorously, take on challenges, and achieve growth. We take these actions in the belief that the health of employees and their families is essential for all our business operations. SUBARU works with 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.
Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. has been committed to workplace safety since its inception as a top priority alongside quality, and the company maintains one of the lowest occupational illness rates in the U.S. automotive industry. The company is currently preparing for ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety management systems) certification in order to continue to create a safe and healthy workplace.