Health, Safety and Welfare of
Employees
Declaration of Health Innovation
Aiming to become a company that enables employees to lead healthy and active working lives
Declaration of Health Innovation
Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd.
- We will, in collaboration with the Sumitomo Pharma Health Insurance Society, actively support health promotion for employees and members of their families, thereby ensuring that they are able to lead fulfilling lives both during and outside of work.
- Employees of Sumitomo Pharma will make diligent efforts to maintain and promote their own mental and physical health, and that of their families, in order to realize the Corporate Mission.
Concrete initiatives (amended April 2020)
- 1. With an ultimate goal of reducing to zero the number of employees who smoke, we aim to reduce the percentage of smokers by 2.0 points every year.
- 2. We aim to ensure that every employee who is eligible for specific health guidance or who has been deemed by an occupational physician to require treatment undergoes a medical examination in order to prevent any further deterioration of health.
- 3. We promote the creation of an integrated mental health support system in which in-house occupational health personnel, external employee assistance program (EAP) providers, and medical institutions collaborate for the prevention, early discovery, and prompt treatment of mental health issues among employees, as well as provide support for their recovery and reinstatement.
- 4. We aim to ensure that every eligible insured employee and his or her dependents undergo a specific medical checkup.
Achieved initiatives to date
- Smoking was completely prohibited and smoking areas were eliminated at all of our workplaces with the goal of becoming a "smoke-free" company. (Achieved at the end of March 2019)
Working to Build Workplace Environments that Emphasize Employee Safety
Sumitomo Pharma has established a Health and Safety Policy, and has long enacted a variety of health and safety activities to prevent work-related accidents. Moreover, in preparation for the occurrence of a fire, explosion, or other major work-related accident, or a large-scale natural disaster, Sumitomo Pharma has taken a number of measures to minimize their impact, including equipment-centered measures and the establishment of rules.
In addition to these measures, we believe it is important to instill an awareness of health and safety among employees themselves. Towards this end, the Secretariat of Environmental and Safety Committee implements training for new hires, encouraging them to think again about basic considerations, such as what health and safety is all about and why health and safety initiatives are necessary. Also, information about work-related accidents that occur at Sumitomo Pharma is shared with the entire company via Sumitomo Pharma's intranet. Such information helps foster awareness about health and safety in every employee through recognition of accidents as close-at-hand events.
Under the Mid-term Health and Safety Action Plan for fiscal 2019-2022, Sumitomo Pharma has set forth the following priority issues and the goal of implementing various measures to promote company-wide safety and health activities. As accidents with injuries involving rear-end collisions with stationary business vehicles are relatively common, and it is difficult for the Company to prevent such accidents by itself, we excluded accidents involving business vehicles when setting the quantitative target for the work-related accident frequency rate indicated in (2) (c). In fiscal 2021, the plan proceeded smoothly on the whole, including achievement of the quantitative target.
・Click here (Internal Standards and Guidelines for CSR (5) Safety and Health) for Basic Safety and Health Policy.
Mid-term Health and Safety Action Plan
- (1)Enhance and reinforce health and safety management system
- (a)Regularly review and improve rules, manuals and procedures related to health and safety management
- (b)Implement health and safety education in accordance with circumstances in each business site category and each division
- (c)Raise awareness of health and safety and implement proactive health and safety activities
- (2)Identify health and safety risks and take countermeasures
- (a)Identify hazards and take prioritized countermeasures
- (b)Continuously reduce risk level through plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycles
- (c)Promote measures to prevent work-related accidents, achieve work-related accident frequency rate, excluding accidents involving business vehicles, of 1.20 or less, and lost-time injury frequency rate excluding accidents involving business vehicles, of 0.20 or less at all business sites across Japan
- (3)Comply with laws and regulations related to safety and health
- (a)Conduct regular assessments of compliance with relevant laws and regulations
- (b)Identify relevant laws and regulations in a timely manner and ensure compliance
- (4)Promote creation of a workplace environment that facilitates development of mental and physical health and stress-free work
- (a)Enhance health management system (various measures for health promotion, prevention, early detection, prevention of overwork, and follow-up care for health examinations in collaboration with the Sumitomo Pharma Health Insurance Society)
- (b)Create employee awareness about self-managing health in accordance with the Declaration of Health Innovation
- (c)Promote mental health (firmly establish stress checks and return to work support programs)
Frequency Rates and Target Achievement (fiscal 2019-2021)
Achievement: ○:target achieved, x:target not achieved, -:not applicable as target not set
Target | FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Results | Progress | Results | Progress | Results | Progress | ||
Work-related accident frequency rate |
N/A | 1.32 | - | 0.80 | - | ![]() |
- |
Lost-time injury frequency rate |
N/A | 0.16 | - | 0.00 | - | ![]() |
- |
Work-related accident frequency rate excluding accidents involving business vehicles |
1.20 or less |
0.33 | ○ | 0.00 | ○ | ![]() |
○ |
Lost-time injury frequency rate excluding accidents involving business vehicles |
0.20 or less |
0.16 | ○ | 0.00 | ○ | ![]() |
○ |
Calculation Basis
Work-related accident frequency rate: Number of deaths and injuries due to occupational accidents with or without lost workdays, excluding commuting accidents, per 1,000,000 cumulative hours worked
Lost-time injury frequency rate: Number of deaths and injuries due to occupational accidents with one or more lost workdays, excluding commuting accidents, per 1,000,000 cumulative hours worked
Work-related accident frequency rate excluding accidents involving business vehicles: Number of deaths and injuries due to occupational accidents with or without lost workdays, excluding accidents involving business vehicles and commuting accidents, per 1,000,000 cumulative hours worked
Lost-time injury frequency rate excluding accidents involving business vehicles: Number of deaths and injuries due to occupational accidents with one or more lost workdays, excluding accidents involving business vehicles and commuting accidents, per 1,000,000 cumulative hours worked
Boundary of aggregation: Employees (including contract employees, part-timers, temporary employees, and employees seconded to the Company) at all business sites of the Company and SMP Distribution Service Co., Ltd. in Japan
Lost-time injury frequency rate (fiscal 2017-2021)

*Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Survey on occupational accidents
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/itiran/roudou/saigai/21/dl/2021gaikyou.pdf (Japanese only)
Calculation Basis
Lost-time injury frequency rate: Number of deaths and injuries due to occupational accidents with one or more lost workdays, excluding commuting accidents, per 1,000,000 cumulative hours worked
Boundary of aggregation (Sumitomo Pharma): In the period up to fiscal 2018, employees at all business sites of the Company in Japan (including contract employees, part-timers, temporary employees, and employees seconded to the Company). From fiscal 2019 onward, employees at all business sites of the Company and SMP Distribution Service Co., Ltd. in Japan (including contract employees, part-timers, temporary employees, and employees seconded to the Company).
Overtime hours for supervisors have been included in cumulative hours worked in order to express the actual situation more appropriately since fiscal 2018. The impact of this change is minor.
Boundary of aggregation (Consolidated companies): Employees (including contract employees, part-timers, temporary employees, and employees seconded to the Company) at all business sites of the Sumitomo Pharma Group's consolidated companies in Japan and abroad (excluding one company whose accident report was not available)
Boundary of aggregation (Contractors): Employees of contractors (including contract employees, part-timers, temporary employees, and employees seconded to the Company) at all business sites of the Company in Japan.
Note: The social performance indicator marked with has received third-party assurance. The Independent Assurance Report is on "Third-Party Assurance."
Analysis of Work-Related Accidents
As a result of classifying the types of work-related accidents that occurred in the five years from fiscal 2017 to 2021 (excluding accidents involving business vehicles), we found that falls (falling over and falling down) accounted for 75% of the total. Also, several accidents involving falls have occurred during commuting every year. Therefore, Sumitomo Pharma has cited the prevention of accidents related to falls including while commuting as one of the priority challenges for fiscal 2022 following on initiatives from fiscal 2021 and is promoting awareness raising activities, including Japanese National Safety Week, with reference to the content of the initiatives under the "STOP! Occupational Fall Accidents Project" organized by Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Classification of work-related accidents by type (fiscal 2017-2021)(%)

* The graph shows the results of classifying the types of work-related accidents that occurred in the five years from fiscal 2017 to 2021 (excluding accidents involving business vehicles).
Implementing Health and Safety Risk Assessments

Sumitomo Pharma has carried out health and safety risk assessments as s company-wide initiative. Risk assessment involves expressing the relative risk of a given operation or piece of equipment using a scale which can be universally understood. Specifically, this means expressing numerically the severity and possibility of accidents that could arise as a result of operations or equipment involved in daily duties, as well as the frequency of the task, and evaluating the risk quantitatively by combining these factors. Priority for remedial measures is then given to those operations and equipment rated as high risk.
In fiscal 2021, we finished risk assessments at all targeted workplaces. In the future too, as we continue to operate our risk assessment system, we will strive to reduce risky behavior that can lead to work-related accidents and keep improving health and safety standards.
Promoting Health Management

For the seven year in a row from 2017, Sumitomo Pharma was recognized under the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program for the large enterprise category (White 500), a program implemented jointly by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nippon Kenko Kaigi for outstanding health and productivity management practices undertaken in collaboration with insurers.
At Sumitomo Pharma, we treat the promotion of employees' health as one of the material issues (Materiality) in corporate management. In October 2017, we formulated the Declaration of Health Innovation to actively involve ourselves in the promotion of the health of our employees and members of their families to help them to lead fulfilling lives both at and outside of work. Pursuant to the Declaration, we are promoting specific initiatives in collaboration with the Sumitomo Pharma Health Insurance Society, focusing on the four goals of: 1) reducing the smoking rate; 2) preventing further deterioration of individuals' health; 3) maintaining mental health; and 4) having all insured individuals undergo specific medical checkups. In particular, we have been carrying out a company-wide effort on smoking cessation guidance for some time as an activity aimed at creating a "smoke-free" company, a concrete initiative listed under the Declaration of Health Innovation. By having the objective specifically articulated in the Declaration of Health Innovation, we were able to implement initiatives more effectively than before and achieved the complete prohibition of smoking (closure of smoking areas) at all of our business sites across Japan at the end of March 2019.
We have also been focusing on follow-up measures for the results of medical checkups in order to strengthen our ability to prevent disease progression. Occupational physicians give feedback to employees on the results of checkups and, in collaboration with the Sumitomo Pharma Health Insurance Society, provide specific health guidance and recommendations for medical consultations to prevent disease progression as needed. In so doing, we support lifestyle improvements as a measure against metabolic syndrome and facilitate the early treatment of disease to promote employee health.
To this end, we have been most active in organizing health programs, including online seminars on nutrition, oral care and training. We will remain united in realizing a healthy and fulfilling life for all employees and their family members so that we can contribute to the betterment of healthcare and fuller lives of people worldwide.
Supporting Mental Wellbeing

Supports of mental health issues which occur due to stress from work or daily life are extremely important to cultivate a comfortable and safe work environment.

We provide managers and regular employees with mental health training (self-care and line care) that enables self-management (self care) and prevention of mental health issues and appropriate care (line care) for employees who are experiencing mental health issues. From fiscal 2010, we have also been conducting periodic stress check-ups for all employees to help them become aware of their mental health issues and learn about how to cope with them. We also provide interviews and guidance by an occupational physicians to employees who are determined to be under high stress based on the results of stress checks.Moreover, we have initiatives to use the data of group analysis for improving the work environment.
For those employees who are experiencing mental health issues and their managers, we collaborate for early discovery, and prompt treatment of mental health issues among employees, as well as providing support for their recovery and reinstatement with a 7-person team of occupational physicians, both full-time and part-time, including a full-time chief occupationall physician and one occupational psychiatrists, as well as occupational healthcare staff including nurses. Our system provides ongoing follow-up from the treatment stage aimed at supporting return to work. With regard to counseling and return to the workplace, we partner with outside Employee Assistance Programs, local Vocational Centers for Persons with Disabilities and Disability Employment Services to provide support.
Prevention of Overwork

Working for long hours can have negative effects on physical and mental health. We emphasize proper management of work hours and occupational physicians provide guidance to employees who have worked more overtime than the specified hours.
In order to encourage employees to take paid leave and to raise their awareness of proper time-management for working hours, we implement initiatives to curb long working hours by urging each workplace to rationalize work tasks, hold "Work Style Innovation Meetings" for employees to discuss and review work styles each work site, and set "no overtime days" on which all employees leave without overtime work.
Operating Consultation Desks and Hotlines

We operate consultation desks and hotlines to ensure a workplace environment in which every employee is able to concentrate on his/her work with a sense of security. Consultations can be made through telephone, facsimile, email or letter in envelope per the employee's preference. The Company gives feedback directly to the employee as to the action the Company has taken in response to the consultation.
Consultation desk | Content |
---|---|
Compliance Hotline | Providing consultation or accepting reports internally or externally in the event that an employee has questions or has obtained information concerning violations related to compliance |
Harassment Consultation Desk | Providing consultation or accepting reports internally in the event that an employee has questions or has obtained information concerning violations related to harassment |
Mental Health Consultation Desk | Externally providing consultation or answering questions concerning mental health |
General Consultation Desk | Providing consultation or accepting reports internally in the event that an employee has questions or has obtained information concerning violations related to compliance as well as in the event that an employee has problems or concerns related to daily work life |
Workers with Disabilities Consultation Desk | Providing consultation internally in the event that an employee suffers from improper discrimination in a workplace due to disability or needs consideration to disability in a workplace |
Diverse Sexualities Consultation Desk | Providing consultation internally in the event that an employee is harassed on sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTQ) and an employee has questions concerning workplace environment |
Building Good Workers-Management Relations
Sumitomo Pharma Workers Union comprises employees from the Sumitomo Pharma. As regular workers-management consultation bodies, the Workers Union and the Company proactively exchange opinions based on each perspective on human capital management and workplace health & safety.