Labor-management relations

We recognize that pleasant and satisfying working environments contribute to the development of the company, and therefore, good labor-management relations and the collaboration they engender are essential ingredients of such working environments. As of March 31, 2023, 100% of general employees from Sumitomo Bakelite and its domestic Group companies are members of the Sumitomo Bakelite Union (hereinafter, “the Union”). 54.3% of all employees are covered by the company’s collective bargaining agreement.

Corporate-level meetings of the company’s senior executives and representatives of the Union are held twice a year at the head office. These meetings are valuable opportunities to cultivate favorable labor–management relationships by sharing frank views on the business environment and the Company’s operations. Major business sites also hold monthly labor–management meetings at which information about conditions in each department is shared.

As for health and safety, we aim at creating safe and comfortable workplaces through labor–management collaboration based on the provisions of the labor agreement. The annual labor–management meetings on occupational health and safety, where safety representatives from the Sumitomo Bakelite Union across Japan gather, had been placed on hold in fiscal 2022 due to the spread of COVID-19, but was held as a face-to-face meeting for the first time in three years, resulting in a lively exchange of ideas. We also recognize that occupational health and safety is an important theme to monitor between labor and management. At Sumitomo Bakelite along with its subsidiaries and affiliates with a labor union, provisions on health and safety are included in the labor agreements that establish a formal agreement between the company and its labor union.

We are also putting effort into developing good labor–management relations at our overseas business sites. As of March 31, 2023, 16 out of 27 overseas business sites have labor unions, of which 14 have concluded labor agreements, while 8 have established arrangements on safety and health.