Basic Approach
Tokyu Construction established the Health and Safety Policy to create safe and healthy workplaces. Using the safety index as a key performance indicator, we conduct programs on an ongoing basis through our health and safety management systems. At the same time, our top management takes the lead in promoting initiatives to evolve our safety management.
Health and Safety Policy
Under the strong leadership of top management, we at Tokyu Construction cooperate with all parties involved in the construction business and work in unison at the head office, branches and work sites in using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to ensure safe, healthy and comfortable work environments.
1）Practicing safety first
We don’t keep silent in dangerous conditions or situations, and call out in case of danger, give reminders or warnings, or temporarily suspend work to check whether safety measures are in place, and will make every effort to prevent disasters and accidents.
2）Identifying risks
We will work to identify potential work-related health and safety hazards that may cause harm in order to prevent disasters and accidents.
3）Setting priority actions
- Eliminating public, fatal and severe accidents
- Reducing accidents due to falling from heights
- Reducing accidents involving construction machinery, cranes, etc.
- Reducing accidents due to collapsing objects
4）Maintaining and improving physical and mental health
We will promote the health of all our employees and the people involved in construction work and create a stress-free workplace.
5）Complying with laws and regulations
We will clearly identify relevant laws and regulations and set out our corporate regulations related to occupational health and safety to comply with them.
6）Operating and improving systems
We will establish, operate and constantly make improvements on our health and safety management systems.
7）We will work on these policies together with all our employees and the people involved in construction work.
Enacted in July 1, 2023
Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems
Using the Construction Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (COHSMS) as our reference standard, we are consolidating the health and safety management methods that we have been carrying out as a company in accordance with the basic guidelines at our head office, branch offices and work sites.
Based on the company-wide health and safety policy, we announce health and safety targets as well as guidelines for measures and action plan throughout the company every fiscal year. In line with these, we establish health and safety targets and plans at branch offices, and develop voluntary health and safety activities to prevent work-related accidents at work sites. We verify our efforts through daily, weekly and monthly construction safety cycles at work sites, and mainly through internal health and safety audits at the head office and branch offices, with the aim of improving our health and safety management standards using the PDCA cycle.
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Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems
Health and Safety Management Structure
Emergency Response
In the event of a work-related accident, fire or other emergencies, we have established a management structure for contacting the relevant organizations and relaying information smoothly between our head office, branch offices and construction sites. In an emergency, we send the first report directly from the department where the incident occurred, and the information is shared up to the management level.
Emergency Communications After an Accident
Activities Based on Health and Safety Management Systems
Under the Construction Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (COHSMS) operated by the company, our head office, branches and work sites cooperate in using the PDCA cycle to promote ongoing health and safety activities, in an effort to prevent work-related accidents while also promoting worker health and creating of comfortable work environments, with the aim of enhancing our health and safety standards. For example, we work to ensure safety at work sites by strictly enforcing the Tokyu Construction Ten Safety Rules.
Tokyu Construction Ten Safety Rules
- First, look, listen and check the site
- Hazard prediction activities: Sharpen your senses to potential danger
- Eliminate hazards through daily site inspection
- Do not ignore hazardous conditions during operations
- Stop falling and prevent objects from collapsing or flying by observing proper procedures
- When working at height, first check your safety equipment
- Installation must be fixed on leveled, solid ground
- Operators must be qualified and designated
- Communication is a lifeline that saves the lives of co-workers
- Observe safety rules and instructions onsite
Evolution of Our Safety Management
We have been working since FY2019 on initiatives to implement the following four items to realize the evolution of our safety management, with the aim of further enhancing safety at construction sites and creating comfortable work environments. In particular, we are working to strengthen communication at various stages and scenes at workplaces. To enhance the traditional management inspection of health and safety at workplaces, we have established a new meeting body for safety measures to encourage the exchange of opinions between top management, work site staff, and supervisors and health and safety managers of subcontractors.
- Strengthen the safety management structure by increasing the involvement of top management
- Review the construction safety cycles
- Strengthen communication
- Make other revisions to comply with the latest management systems, such as the new COHSMS and new risk assessments
Management-Led Health and Safety Inspections
Throughout the fiscal year, health and safety inspections are conducted by management officials with the aim of improving health and safety company-wide.
Company officers personally visit work sites and directly talk to employees, subcontractor supervisors and workers to urge them to actively join health and safety management activities. At the same time, they check the implementation status of measures using the COHSMS Guidelines and issue instructions for improvement.
Initiatives and Training System to Prevent Occupational Accidents
We have established a health and safety training system that includes lectures on health and safety management. Employees are grouped into nine levels, from new employees to those in their 30th year. The aim is to continually improve our health and safety management capabilities and maintain our construction safety cycles. In order to raise safety awareness, these lectures feature extensive practical training rather than classroom lectures and incorporate many group work and group discussions called “buzz sessions.” We also conduct more practical education and provide subjects that can help in acquiring the qualifications needed for construction and work site management, such as training for employees handling asbestos and dust, and special education for persons responsible for handling oxygen deficiency.
Collaboration with Subcontractors
Collaboration with our partners — subcontractors — is indispensable to health and safety management at work sites. While working together with Tokyu Construction’s Accident Prevention Cooperative Association, which is organized by the subcontracting companies engaged in our construction works, we also promote a variety of activities to eliminate accidents. This includes running a “meister” certification system to recognize excellent supervisors, providing safety and health training for business owners of subcontracting companies, as well as conducting safety and health training to improve skills for supervisors involved in our onsite safety and health management activities.
Moreover, to create an environment where skilled workers are able to individually receive proper evaluation and benefits according to their skills and experience, our company has joined the executive board of the Construction Career Up System (CCUS) Headquarters established by the Japan Federation of Construction Contractors and actively cooperates in promoting the system. The CCUS stores workers’ work experience, qualifications and other information under a common industry system using a smart card with an IC chip.
Presentations of Improvement Cases
In partnership with Tokyu Construction’s Accident Prevention Cooperative Association, we hold presentations of improvement cases on themes such as safety, environment, quality and cost. This initiative has been held annually since 2005 with the aim of disseminating best practices and improvement cases among colleagues across the company and preventing both occupational and quality-related accidents.
Construction site personnel and subcontractor staff make the presentations together, in order to strengthen cooperation between our company and our business partners for improving technologies, sharing knowledge and skills, and passing them on to the next generation. Through these activities, we at Tokyu Construction and the Accident Prevention Cooperative Association continue to further deepen our cooperation and work on preventing occupational as well as quality-related accidents.
Radio Exercise and Diversity
As part of our initiatives to strengthen communication, we produced a video of a radio exercise (traditional morning calisthenics in Japan) with voice-overs in different languages and Japanese dialects. There are 12 different versions, namely standard Japanese and four Japanese dialects: Tsugaru, Nagoya, Osaka and Hakata, plus seven other languages: English, Chinese (two types), Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese and Myanmar. The video is used in the morning assembly before the start of work. We hope to eliminate disasters at construction sites, where workers from diverse backgrounds work together.
