We hold the labor-management meeting monthly to discuss issues in relation to the work environment, labor condition, and occupational health and safety with labor representatives. Responsible units suggest solutions or report the progress of improvement to labor representatives at the meeting. All issues discussed at the meeting are followed up until resolutions are made. These resolutions are also considered as official labor-management agreements. Both parties are engaging in collective bargaining to include OHS and related labor rights.
In addition, we have established the “Occupational Health and Safety Committee” to implement work safety, accident prevention, workplace improvement, and employee health maintenance. The committee has 26 seats, including the president as the committee chair and representatives from different units as members. Nine members, or 35%, are labor representatives. The regulations of the committee are superior to that of the regulatory requirements.
Employment Diversity
We have established well-defined employment regulations and have never hired child labor. In addition, to provide vulnerable groups with more job opportunities, we give extra credits to people with disabilities and indigenous peoples. Based on the principle of equal pay for equal work, we ensure equal remuneration for employees regardless of race, belief, religion, political party, place of origin, place of birth, gender, sexual orientation, marriage, appearance, physical and mental disabilities, or past union membership. We also ensure the freedom of association of employees and encourage them to join clubs. As we also conduct business with suppliers and contractors abiding by the above principles, no report regarding gender discrimination or racism has been reported over the years. In 2018, there was no report on violation of human rights, non-compliance with non-discrimination, or impact on business activities as a result of human rights.
CPC is a petrochemical company, and most employees are recruited from the natural science and engineering disciplines, in which males are more than females. Therefore, the male-to-female ratio is higher, i.e. 86.3% are male employees and 13.7% are female employees. In workforce arrangement, however, we abide by the International Bill of Human Rights and domestic laws and regulations to ensure equal treatment and non-discrimination over gender. In education distribution employees graduated from senior high schools, colleges, and universities, accounting for 81.2% of total employees, and 16.7% of the employees hold master’s degree.
Work-Study students
We provide complete training and education for work-study students, emphasizing training development and skill training. We also offer them various employment assistance. In addition to the mandatory requirements, our Employee Welfare Committee (EWC) provides them with NTD 1 million casualty insurance and fuel discounts. There are also African work-study students at CPC gas stations who are passionate about Taiwanese culture, three Malawian students pursue higher education in Taiwan and became work-study students at our Dazhi Gas Station coincidentally. We welcome them joining us and allow them to feel the passion and friendliness of Taiwan.
Friendly workplace and employee benefits
Apart from building a friendly work environment, we release a range of bonuses based on the overall performance of business units and the contribution and performance of individual employees. We also contribute the welfare fund according to the “Employee Welfare Fund Act” and co-establish EWC with Taiwan Petroleum Workers’ Association (TPWA) to organize various types of welfare business and recreational activities. To promote employee welfare, we establish branch committees in different locations. In addition to the mandatory National Health Insurance, Civil Servant and Teacher Insurance, and Labor Insurance, we purchase additional group insurance, overseas travel insurance (business trips), and accident insurance for employees. We also provide employees with injury, disability, and death condolence funds to protect the work and life security of employees.
In addition, EWC offers benefits including, children’s grants and scholarships, medical allowance for dependents, wedding allowance, death and disability condolence funds, and retirement allowance. To take care of young new employees, exact general equality in employment, and encourage birth, we have amended the employee loan regulations to cover marriage and birth, in addition to children’s higher education and emergency assistance. Local EWC branches also offer preferential nursery services by signing contracts with kindergartens and disclose information of established or contracted kindergartens on the intranet for the reference of employees.
Employee health management
We arrange health examinations for employees every year to maintain their health. In 2018, 13,103 employees took the general health examination and 2,529 the special health examination for employees engaging in work with noise, dust, organic solvents, specialty chemicals, ionized radiation, and abnormal pressures. To prevent employees from exposing to various work-related hazard factors, we have established the Work Environment Monitoring Plan and implement work environment monitoring for the reference of improvement, in order to prevent hazards. In 2018, we performed work environment monitoring on 32 chemical hazard factors (organic solvents, specialty chemicals dust, and CO2) and two physical hazard factors (noise exposure and wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index). The monitoring results are below the permissible exposure limits. We will constantly keep track on employee health. In 2018, there was no report of occupational disease of any kind. To further the statistical analysis capacity of health management, we analyze employee examination results every year and list the top six anomalies. In 2018, they were body weight, total cholesterol chest X-ray, low density lipoproteins, waist measurement, and triglycerides. We also arranged health talks and health promotion activities based on these anomalies to promote employee health.
Occupational safety identification
In 2002, we introduced the risk-management-based OHSAS 18001. To build a quality safety culture, we implemented the Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Management System (TOSHMS) in 2008 to capture the hazard factors in various jobs through systematic management. To ensure risk assessment consistency of all units, we have established the“Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment SOP” to identify the risk of every type of business. We have also established the “Duty and Job Inventory” for further risk identification based on the inventory results to complete the “Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Sheet”. For high-risk jobs, we immediately review the integrity of existing protective measures and make improvements as soon as possible in terms of system, equipment, and implementation to reduce risk in the work environment. In addition, we conduct internal and external audits every year and hold the TOSHMS management review meeting to review audited defects and the audit results to ensure OHS compliance. By 2018, 34 units have implemented and passed the certification of TOSHMS. We identify unit-specific risk and draw up related countermeasures. We also draw up various emergency response drilling plans and implement emergency response drills regularly to improve the ability to accident response and disaster prevention.
Accident investigation and analysis
We have formed the Accident Case Study Working Team to collect information of all industrial safety accidents to analyze their root causes and accident types. The team has also published the Industrial Safety Case Studies as a learning resource of accident investigation to improve employees' accident investigative skills and thereby enhance overall industrial safety performance.
In addition, we have established the “Principles for the Investigation and Management of Industrial Safety Accidents” to define the process of investigation, report writing, statistics, and follow-up. We have also designed “Hazards and Emergency Report Form” on the intranet to timely capture the related information of accidents. Our OHS performance has been superior (i.e. FSI is below the industry average) to that of competitors. The 2018 OHS performance was also below the control value, except for FR (0.59) which was a little higher than the control value (0.43). After reviewing and analyzing the causes of accidents in detail, we implemented corrective actions in terms of system and implementation and requested related units to propose action plans to improve industrial safety. We have also initiated a general review to prevent the recurrence of similar accidents.