Labor Practices（Health & safety at work)

Efforts to Ensure Safety at Overseas Worksites

In the system’s first application to an overseas worksite, Taisei applied the Taisei Occupational Health and Safety Management System (TAISEI OHSMS) to a high-rise condominium construction project in Taichung. To promote this system in Taiwan, we invited representatives from all of the general contractors in Taichung to tour the worksite. Following the event, we organized a lecture on the system at the request of a local university. At that time, Taiwan was also implementing OHSMS on a trial basis. After we held the tour and lecture, Taichung’s labor standards bureau visited our worksite to see how our guidelines applied to actual operation.

Examples of Our OHSMS Implementation

(1) Health and Safety Education Based on Past Accidents

Workers were reminded about past accidents at every morning meeting in order to contribute to their health and safety education.

(2) Preparation of Plans for Priority-Designated Hazardous Work and Opening Management Plans

Local employees prepared a plan for priority-designated hazardous work, which was reviewed by the head office and the responsible branch. Construction was performed in accordance with the plan’s hazardous work management flow. Safety checks before starting work helped workers recognize the importance of proactive management. Safety checks before starting work helped workers recognize the importance of proactive management.
Plans for openings were prepared on standard Taisei Corporation forms and used to manage openings, the places at construction sites with the highest risk of accidental falls. Thanks to these plans, no accidental falls occurred.

(3) Meetings of the Disaster Prevention Council

We held meetings of the Disaster Prevention Council monthly to raise workers’ safety awareness. Taisei was the first construction company to apply the safe construction cycle to construction projects.

(4) Safety Conventions

We held safety conventions to promote workers’ awareness of safety precautions and workplace hazards.

(5) Safety Patrols

In Taiwan, foremen do not customarily conduct safety patrols. For this reason, in order to promote the idea of safety patrols, at first patrols were carried out only for specific targets which were set for each day of the week. The results of the patrols were explained to all participating subcontractors at the process meeting each working day in order to check whether problems found by the patrol the day before had been corrected.

◆ Worksite Patrols by the Safety Administration & Environmental Department of the International Operations Headquarters

The Safety Administration & Environmental Department of the International Operations Headquarters patrolled the worksite. This effort was well-received by local supervisory authorities.

Intra-industry Cooperation

The construction industry is predicated on cooperation and collaboration among a great many affiliated and related companies. To this end, Taisei Corporation has set up the Taisei Association of Subcontractors for Health, Safety, and the Environment, made up of representatives from all subcontractors, with a mission to stamp out accidents and incidents in the workplace. Taisei Corporation works to improve health and safety standards in a number of ways including: cosponsoring the Health and Safety Management Conference together with the Association; producing the in-house newsletter Kyoryoku (cooperation), which is used for health and safety training and education programs; and issuing a regular listing of workplace accidents and incidents for use as training materials.