CSR

[ISO 26000 Core Subject] Human Rights and Labor Practices

The Fujikura Group is working on the issue of work-life balance based on the following two sets of principles and guidelines.
One is the "Fujikura Group Activity Guidelines", the other is the "Criteria for the management of employees' health and safety and for ethical considerations".

The Fujikura Group is committed to providing employees with comfortable workplaces based on the Fujikura Group CSR Activity Guidelines, which states, "Secure the safety of all people involved in Fujikura Group's corporate activities, while maintaining a comfortable work environment and striving to improve it."

Fujikura Ltd. works to ensure appropriate working hours as one of its extremely important management issues that will help improve the value of the company and its human capital. The entire Group is making a concerted effort to this end. In June 2014 we documented the Group's policies on appropriate working hours and have been conducting related activities regarding the following as the three pillars of these policies.

The average overtime hours per month recorded showed almost no change when compared to the previous fiscal year. In the 2016 fiscal year, we will promote further improvements in this matter.

“Work-life balance” refers to an environment where the home and the workplace, or “work” and “life,” can be harmonized. In 2007, the Work-Life Balance Charter was formulated by the relevant ministries in conjunction with the finance and labor industries as an initiative that would begin to unify the public and private sectors in realizing work-life balance. The charter declares that the society that work-life balance must aim towards is a “society where each and every citizen engages in worthwhile, satisfying work and realize their responsibilities in the workplace even as they are able to choose from and realize at home and in the community a diversity of lifestyle options at every stage of human life, from early parenthood to middle and old age.”

Fujikura focuses on improving its working environment to enable each employee to achieve a better work-life balance by working in a flexible manner according to their life stage.
In January 2010, before the revised Act on the Welfare of Workers Who Take Care of Children or Other Family Members including Child Care and Family Care Leave came into effect in Japan in June 2010, we revised our childcare leave system, including abolishing the exceptional rules applied to spouses who do not work outside the home and making it possible for fathers to take childcare leave more than once. As a result three male employees actually took childcare leave, which demonstrates that employees of Fujikura are steadily improving their work-life balance regardless of their gender.
In October 2010, we published a handbook that outlines Fujikura's childcare and nursing care systems and related laws. We have distributed copies of this book widely to employees, including users of the systems, managers, and employees in charge of the systems, in order to deepen their understanding of the systems and laws.

The systems supporting work-life balance in our Company are indicated in the 6th version of the General Business Owners Action Plan.

The key points are listed below.

In addition, we have tools to educate on and disseminate the systems and supports mentioned above.

In February 2016, the Company received a Notification Certifying a General Employer’s Conformity to Standards based on the Law for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation from the director of the Tokyo Labor Bureau. With this, we have transformed our current certification into a Next Generation Certification Mark (common called a “Kurumin” mark), which is given to enterprises that support childcare. The Company has begun to use this mark on things like brochures, on its business cards.

The Kurumin certification system allows companies to be certified by the Minister of Labor (delegated to prefectural labor bureau directors) and be defined as an “enterprise supporting parenting” through the accomplishment of certain objectives, such as those set out in relevant action plans. A certified employer can then use the Next Generation Mark (nickname: Kurumin) to promote itself as a company that supports parenting and childcare.

In order to create an environment in which diverse human resources can fully exercise their abilities and realize enhanced corporate value, the Group has in place activities to enhance employee incentives as well as systems to support those activities. Among them is a proposal system established by our first President, Tomekichi Matsumoto; even now, his system is in active application.

Fujikura Ltd. has a system to allow employees to use their paid holidays for which the two-year entitlement period has expired up to 100 days if they become ill or need to take leave for their family in need of nursing care. In April 2015, the company added local community/social contribution (volunteer) activities to the activities for which employees can use such holidays.

The activities for which employees can use the aforementioned holidays now include volunteer activities for disaster victims, organ donor-related activities (registration and actual donation), welfare activities for people with disabilities and the elderly, contributions to local disaster and crime control, and youth training and education.