Frequency = (Death or injuries in workplace accidents resulting in absence from work/Total working hours for all employees) x 1 million
To ensure safe operations, we have been striving to maintain and improve the level of our facility management, production technology, human resource development, and environmental preservation. The foundation of these efforts is our "safety culture." Safety culture is a safety-first climate that prevails throughout an organization from top management to each on-site worker. At the JSR Group, in order to build a more solid safety culture, it is assured that every employee shares the principle that safety takes priority over production and conducts safety activities on a daily basis to enhance the level of safety.
A serious workplace accident occurred at the Yokkaichi Plant in FY2015. We will review existing safety activities and identify and solve outstanding issues, and reconstruct a safety culture in which all concerned personnel including top management share the same safety principles, and in which safety is incorporated into all of our business practices.
These are the major activities conducted as part of our Workplace Accident Eradication Project and Safety Infrastructure Reform Project (For details, see "Safety and Disaster Prevention Key Issues" on the Website).
Employees from various manufacturing partners work at our plants. Each plant has a Comprehensive Disaster Prevention Council (Disaster Prevention Council) to jointly promote occupational safety and health activities with our manufacturing partners. These organizations conduct various activities to increase safety and health levels, including investigating the causes of accidents that occur at manufacturing partners and devising preventive measures, providing instruction and education on day-to-day safety and health, and implementing joint inspections of workplaces under construction.
We also have established a safety award system (the Kawasaki Commemorative Safety Award) that includes Group companies to raise workers' awareness of safety. Awards were not granted in FY2015 due to the serious workplace accident.
The table below shows the number of workplace accidents that occurred over the last five years. There were one accident in FY2015.
| FY | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Cases | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
The table below shows the number of facility accidents that took place in the last five years. There was two accidents in FY2015.
| FY | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Cases | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
In the spirit of our Responsible Care philosophy, we strive to help our plants and operators to acquire certification under various security and safety laws. This enables plants and operators to create higher quality health and safety management systems in addition to clarifying their responsibilities and rights. As a result, certification plays an important role in improving safety technologies. At JSR, all plants have acquired plant and operator certification under the High-Pressure Gas Safety Act, Fire and Disaster Management Act, and Industrial Safety and Health Act, but due to the serious workplace accident, JSR was notified that the certification of the No.1 pressurized container at the Yokkaichi Plant would be suspended during the shut-down inspection period (2 years). JSR is working toward obtaining recertification in 2017. We will continue to maintain certifications with the aim of improving our environmental and safety standards.
As part of our Responsible Care activities, we have issued a Responsible Care Report every year since 1998, taking the initiative on the disclosure of information related to environmental impact, environmental complaints, number of facility accidents, discharge and transfer volumes of harmful chemical substances, and other data. From the 2006 edition, the name of this report was changed to "CSR Report" to reflect increasing activity in the JSR Group to fulfill our corporate social responsibility. Since 2000, all three of our plants have been issuing their own Responsible Care reports. The report from our Head Office and all business site reports can be viewed on our website.
JSR strives to improve communication with local communities by conducting a variety of initiatives, including tours of factory facilities for local residents’ association and participation in government-hosted town meetings on the environment.
* Here, risk communication refers to achieving a mutual understanding of the risks associated with certain chemical substances by sharing information with stakeholders and discussing measures to properly manage such substances.
In order to maintain and enhance their safety competency, 19 petrochemical companies, including JSR, established the Japan Safety Competency Center in April 2013 in response to a proposal from the Japan Society for Safety Engineering (JSSE). The members of the center, who are active engineers sent from each company, developed a Safety Competency Evaluation System that visualizes the level of safety measures taken. The system can be used to evaluate the safety level of each business site on five scales from the viewpoint of "safety infrastructure" and "safety culture". And this system will contribute to improving the Safety Competency of each site by clarifying their strengths and weaknesses, planning measures for improvements, and quantifying the level of improvements achieved.
In FY2014 based on the system, JSR conducted a self-evaluation of the Yokkaichi Plant, which was its main plant. In FY2015, the safety level was objectively ascertained at the Chiba Plant in August and at the Kashima Plant in November. With the goal of voluntarily improving their safety levels, they underwent evaluation by the Safety Improvement Center. Based on the results, the strengths and weaknesses of the company's safety system became apparent, problems could be identified, and a proposal for specific improvement measures could be created. The implementation of these measures will lead to improving safety competency.
Five requirements for member companies were defined in The Action Plan for Industrial Safety by the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association in July 2013. (1) business owners’ commitment to industrial safety, (2) setting goals for industrial safety, (3) formulating a plan to implement measures for industrial safety, (4) investigation and assessment of the status of achieving the goals and progress regarding implementation of measures, and (5) initiatives to facilitate voluntary safety activities. We have taken actions for these requirements in our RC activities. Based on our Management Policies, we set goals and formulated implementation plans under the leadership of the RC Committee and checked on their progress with an environmental and safety audit conducted by Head Office staff. We also began using the Safety Competency Evaluation System in FY2014.
In December 2014, the effectiveness of Safety and Health activities practices at the Yokkaichi Plant were evaluated and a Safety Diagnosis designed to contribute to improvements was provided by an external consultant (DuPont). Based on the results of this evaluation, the strengths and weaknesses of the company's safety system became apparent, problems could be identified, and a proposal for specific improvement measures could be created. The implementation of these measures will lead to improving safety competency.