Human Rights Due Diligence

To fulfill its responsibilities with regard to respecting human rights, and to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts on human rights due to its business activities, the Taisei Group has established a framework for Human Rights Due Diligence, and implements this framework on an ongoing basis. Taisei's Human Rights Due Diligence framework is based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Japanese government's Guidelines on Respecting Human Rights in Responsible Supply Chains.
During operation, the mechanism is reviewed and improved as needed, and we are committed to deepen our activities to ensure respect for human rights.

Guiding Principle 16
Maintain a commitment to meet the responsibility to respect human rights

Maintain a commitment to respect human rights.

Guiding Principle 18
Identify and assess adverse impacts on human rights

Identify and assess adverse impacts on human rights that are or may be the result of the company's involvement.

Guiding Principle 19
Prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts

Incorporate the results of the impact assessment into all related divisions and company-wide processes, and take appropriate action to prevent or mitigate adverse impacts.

Guiding Principle 20
Assess the effectiveness of activities

Assess the effectiveness of activities and promote ongoing improvements based on the results.

Guiding Principle 21
Provide explanations and disclose information

Explain and disclose basic information related to human rights due diligence as well as methods to deal with adverse impacts.

Guiding Principle 22
Remediation

Work to achieve remediation and correction using appropriate means.

Maintain a commitment to meet the responsibility to respect human rights (Guiding Principle 16)

The Taisei Group's Human Rights Policy was formulated in 2015 and revised in April 2022 following discussion by the Board. The Group's commitment to meeting its responsibility to ensure respect for human rights is communicated clearly both within and outside the Taisei Group companies. The basic position of the Taisei Group as regards respect for human rights is to voluntarily, positively and proactively exercise its responsibilities as a corporate citizen to ensure that its business activities do not negatively impact human rights, and to contribute to the achievement of an inclusive society. Taisei has also established a Human Rights Due Diligence framework to fulfill its responsibility to ensure respect for human rights.

The Human Rights Policy is posted on the official Taisei Group website, and clients and subcontractors, suppliers and other business partners are asked to support the Policy and maintain respect for human rights.

Identify and assess adverse impacts on human rights (Guiding Principle 18)

To identify and assess adverse impacts on human rights caused by existing or new projects of the Taisei Group, based on guidance and recommendations from an outside expert (Sompo Risk Management Inc.), a check was conducted by the Sustainable Procurement Council and members of the Human Resources Division and International Operation Headquarters to identify adverse impacts on human rights (human rights risks) that are common to all industries and human rights risks that are specific to the construction industry and the Taisei Group, based on international guidance on human rights (the Human Rights Guidance Tool of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative).
The human rights risks that were identified — discrimination and harassment, long working hours, health and safety, bribery and corruption, migrant labor (foreign workers), child labor, forced labor etc. — were subjected to a quantitative analysis and assessment from the two aspects of "impact on human rights (degree of seriousness, number of people affected, possibility of remediation, likelihood of occurrence)" and "connection to Taisei." Following discussion at the Sustainability Committee and the Board, these were identified as "human rights issues that must be dealt with on a priority basis.”

Risk Map PDF

Human rights issues that must be dealt with on a priority basis

As of March 1, 2023

Affected Group	Priority Issue
Taisei and Group Company Employees	Long working hours
	Discrimination and harassment
	Health and safety (physical and mental)
	Personal information / privacy
Client or client employees	Personal information / privacy
Specialized contractor workers	Health and safety (industrial accidents)
	Working conditions (wages / long working hours)
	Discrimination and harassment
	Migrant labor (foreign workers)
	Forced labor (overseas)
	Child labor (overseas)
Supplier workers	Working conditions (wages / long working hours)
	Migrant labor (foreign workers)
	Forced labor (overseas)
	Child labor (overseas)
Residents of local community	Health and safety (noise, foul odor etc.)
	Bribery and corruption
	Involvement with antisocial forces
	Activities in countries experiencing conflict
	Operations in countries that fall far short of international standards

Prevent and mitigate adverse impacts (Guiding Principle 19)

For issues that are a priority for Taisei and Group company employees, the headquarters in charge of each issue plays the principal role in taking various corrective measures to achieve prevention or mitigation. Moreover, Taisei also works to deepen employees' understanding of the importance of ensuring respect for human rights through the activities of the Human Rights Awareness Promotion Committee that is chaired by the CSO.

Furthermore, Taisei provides regular online learning on human rights for all executives and employees to raise their awareness of human rights. In the online learning program provided in June 2023, participants confirmed that global actions are required for such issues as long working hours, forced labor, child labor, and corruption and bribery and that special attention must be paid to stakeholders who may be put in a vulnerable position such as foreign workers. The participation rate was 96.0%.

Issues that are a priority for the supply chain are studied by the Sustainable Procurement Council, and prevention and mitigation measures are reflected in the Sustainable Procurement Guidelines. Taisei works with subcontractors and suppliers to prevent or mitigate these issues. To ensure a thorough understanding on the part of subcontractors and suppliers, training is conducted at the Safety Convention, and online learning for subcontractors and suppliers is made available to conduct educational activities on an ongoing basis.

For issues that are a priority for clients, client employees and residents in the local community, the headquarters in charge of each issue plays the principal role in taking corrective measures to achieve prevention or mitigation.

Assess the effectiveness of activities (Guiding Principle 20)

The effectiveness of activities to resolve issues that are a priority for the employees of Taisei and Group companies is assessed through monitoring by various committees, checks an improvements based on company-wide risk management, and opinion surveys and engagement surveys.

To assess the effectiveness of activities to resolve issues that are a priority for the supply chain, annual self-assessment of subcontractors and suppliers is conducted, and based on the results subcontractors and suppliers are visited and audited and an exchange of views is conducted. In FY2022, self-assessment was conducted by 1,590 companies (79% of the companies surveyed on a contract amount basis), and of these 20 companies were visited to check the status of activities and exchanges of views were conducted in order to effect improvements.

In addition, to prevent or mitigate violations of the human rights of foreign workers, a human rights issue that is particularly noteworthy in the construction industry, in addition to the aforementioned self-assessment a survey of the acceptance status of foreign technical interns was conducted for the owners of companies that employ such interns.

In FY2022, a survey was conducted for 251 companies. For 16 of these companies, documents were used to re-check the nature of the activities being conducted, and five companies were visited to conduct interviews on the status of activities and hold an exchange of views. In addition, interviews were conducted directly with five foreign technical interns, and there was confirmed to be no adverse impact on human rights.

For activities with regard to issues that are a priority for clients, client employees and residents in the local community, the effectiveness is assessed by means of company-wide risk management and so on.

Provide explanations and disclose information (Guiding Principle 21)

Regular reports regarding the status of implementation of Human Rights Due Diligence activities are presented to Management Committee, meetings of the Sustainability Committee and the Board. These reports are disclosed in a timely and appropriate manner on the official website and in annual reports.

In FY2022, Taisei commenced Human Rights Due Diligence activities with “specialized contractor workers,” “supplier workers,” and “the local community” as subjects and made efforts to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on human rights by firmly establishing the Sustainable Procurement Guidelines and providing training, etc., to specialized contractors and suppliers.
To assess the effectiveness of these activities, questionnaires in the form of self-assessments of specialized subcontractor and suppliers were conducted, business owners and foreign technical interns were interviewed, and foreign suppliers were also paid a visit and surveyed. As a result, Taisei concluded that within the scope of these surveys, there were no human rights abuses that required immediate attention. Additionally, when we confirmed our actions regarding the local community through company-wide risk management systems, there were no cases in which adverse impacts on human rights had become a major problem.

At the Board meeting held in February 2023, Taisei resolved to add “Taisei and Group company employees” and “client or client employees” as subjects of the Human Rights Due Diligence activities, and together with the subjects of the due diligence mentioned above, Taisei has been engaged in actions to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on human rights from March 2023.

Remediation (Guiding Principle 22)

Contacts for various consultations regarding human rights violations have been established for consultations from all stakeholders within and outside companies, including foreign workers. In the event that the Taisei Group has been determined to be the cause of, or a contributing factor to, an adverse impact on human rights, Taisei takes prompt action using appropriate means to provide remediation and implement corrective action in accordance with its Human Rights Policy.

Contacts for Consultations

Contact	For
Personnel Affairs Consultation Contact (personnel system, workplace environment, human rights, harassment etc.)	Company employees
EAP Consultation Contact (mental health of employees and their family members, etc.) (outside consultation is also available)	Company employees and their families
Vibrant Workplace Promotion Section Consultation Contact (support for diversity, childcare and nursing care, LGBTQ issues etc.)	Company employees
LGBTQ External Consultation Service	Company employees
Harassment Consultation Contact at head office and branch offices (sexual harassment, abuse of power etc.)	Company employees
Contact for "Harassment by Clients"	Company employees
Corporate Ethics Helpline, Group Helpline (for all compliance violations)	Taisei Group current and retired executives and employees, subcontracors and suppliers with contracts concluded directly with Taisei
Whistle-Blower Contact (for legal violations)	Workers of companies engaged in work for Taisei based on a contract concluded directly with Taisei
Contact for Inquiries	All stakeholders

Dialogue with Stakeholders

Based on the understanding that dialogue with stakeholders is crucial for advancing our efforts to respect human rights, we actively engage in dialogues and discussions with stakeholders as appropriate.

Discussion between an outside expert (Board member of JANIC, Hideki Wakabayashi) (left) and the Chief of Sustainability Management Promotion Division (right)
Visit to primary / secondary subcontractors and suppliers, and interviews
Interview with foreign technical interns