Mitigating Human Rights Risks
From the midst of FY2019 to the end of FY2020, we are taking the following actions for mitigating human rights risks to address the issues identified in the assessment in FY2019.
Material issues |
Target stakeholders |
Business |
Employee health and safety |
Employees |
All businesses |
Long working hours |
Employees, workers in supply chain |
All businesses |
Unsuitable wages and employee benefits |
Employees, workers in supply chain |
All businesses |
Inhumane treatment (including harassment) of employees and others |
Employees |
All businesses |
Inappropriate disclosure of employee and customer private data, Privacy violations |
Employees, customers |
All businesses |
Discrimination related to products and services and other human rights violations |
Customers |
Nursing care business |
Safety of products and services |
Customers |
Nursing care business |
- Employee health and safety
With regard to the human rights risks of "Long working hours" identified in FY2019’s risk assessment, in FY2020, mitigation measures have taken under the framework of the CSR management system. After detecting this risk on each department and company, covering approximately 87.7% out of all employees, organizations worked on mitigation measures in the Action Plan. Of these, 43.6% of organization showed improvement through the use of the system of telecommuting /flextime as well as the reduction of overtime work through zero-based work review.
- Inhumane treatment (including harassment) of employees and others
The Sompo Group Compliance Code of Conduct clearly states that all forms of harassment are prohibited, and we are implementing measures such as training on this issue.The "Rules of Employment” was revised in 2020 to set out that conduct falling within or suspected to be power harassment/sexual harassment is prohibited, and to clearly specify that conduct falling within or suspected to be harassment related to pregnancy, childbirth, childcare leave, nursing care leave, etc. is prohibited. In case of incident occurred, effective remedial action has been taken. We aim to improve the quality and availability of protection mechanisms to minimise the risks of the related incident of inhumane treatment including harassment.
<Our Zero-Tolerance Policing>
Complying with our “Group Human Rights Policy”, in all facets of labour practices, we will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, religion, creed, nationality, birthplace, social status, descent, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual expression, pregnancy, marital status, age, disability or any other status.
The Group has established a Compliance Hotline operated by a third-party body as an internal whistleblowing contact point for the entire Group. We are striving to increase its effectiveness by making the entire Group aware of this contact point and the rules of the whistleblowing system, including the prohibition on treating whistleblowers unfavorably. Since 2019, the company has also been a registered operator of the Self-Conformance Declaration of the Whistleblowing Compliance Management System Certification (WCMS Certification) operated by Consumer Affairs Agency, and is working to expand the scope of cases and protect whistleblowers.
- Inappropriate disclosure of employee and customer private data / Privacy violations
- Discrimination related to products and services and other human rights violations
- Safety of products and services
< Measures to Mitigate Human Rights Risks through Insurance Underwriting and Investment/Loan >
Sompo Japan is working to reduce human rights risks through its financial functions. Since October 2020, we have held dialogues with civil society (NGOs, etc.), experts, and experts, accurately grasping the expectations and requests of stakeholders, and utilizing them in the management of each business including insurance underwriting and investment and financing. We identify businesses that engage in child labor and forced labor as having a negative impact on society and respond carefully.