SocialRespect for Human Rights

Respect for human rights is fundamental to our business activities.

Nihon Parkerizing Group endorses the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights principles, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Simultaneously, we have established the Nihon Parkerizing Group Human Rights Policies and implemented initiatives to respect human rights.

In addition, as a company trusted by society, we will strive to maintain and improve safe and secure work environments.

Human Rights Policies

1. The Nihon Parkerizing Group will comply with the laws and regulations of the countries and regions in which it operates, support and respect international norms related to human rights, and fulfill its responsibility to respect human rights.
2. The Nihon Parkerizing Group will eliminate unfair discrimination and any form of harassment in the workplace and respect labor rights.
3. The Nihon Parkerizing Group will strive to promote respect for human rights throughout the supply chain involved in its business.
4. The Nihon Parkerizing Group will prevent the occurrence of adverse human rights impacts. It will take prompt and appropriate action when identifying contributing or complicit violations.

Human Rights Guidelines

Compliance with laws and regulations
We support and respect internationally recognized human rights principles, including the UN International Bill of Human Rights, which stipulates the fundamental human rights of all people, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We also support and respect the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact.

Prohibition of discrimination and harassment
We prohibit discriminatory treatment based on age, gender, nationality, race, religion, language, disability, creed, marital status, sexual orientation, employment status, and other attributes in all employment processes from recruitment, job assignment, treatment, training, and retirement, and do not tolerate any form of harassment including power harassment, sexual harassment, and maternity harassment.

Respect for labor-related rights
We shall comply with internationally recognized core labor standards, including the prohibition of forced labor, child labor, unfair low-wage labor, fundamental rights related to work, and freedom of association and collective bargaining. We also strive to establish wage systems that exceed the minimum wages applicable in the countries and regions in which we operate and to manage appropriate working hours.

Respect for human rights through business activities
We respect human rights in our business activities and endeavor not to promote human rights infringements. If we learn that our corporate activities have caused or contributed to a negative impact on human rights, we will fulfill our responsibility to respect human rights by taking appropriate measures to correct the situation. We will strive to reduce human rights risks in our overall business activities by taking necessary steps such as ensuring strict compliance with policies, rules, principles, and guidelines, as well as the introduction of a Compliance Whistleblowing System with an attorney serving as an external contact in addition to an internal contact.

Responsible supply chains
We seek to build a responsible supply chain by asking and encouraging our business partners, including supply chain partners and other related parties, to support our policy to respect human rights.

Training and awareness activities
We provide appropriate education and training to our officers and employees to ensure that our policies and guidelines on respect for human rights are adequately understood, recognized, and effectively implemented.

Information disclosure
Any non-compliance with the Human Rights Policies and Guidelines will be appropriately disclosed and reported on our website.

System

The Nihon Parkerizing Group has “respect for human rights” as one of its key issues. To ensure respect for human rights, the Sustainability Committee discusses policies, strategies, and plans based on human rights due diligence. The results of the discussions are reported to the Executive Committee and supervised by the Board of Directors as necessary.

Furthermore, based on our fundamental approach to respect for human rights, we promote specific measures in cooperation with domestic and overseas group companies.

Human Rights Due Diligence

The Nihon Parkerizing Group's initiatives

The Group considers respect for human rights in its business activities to be an essential goal. It has established a human rights due diligence system based on international fundamental principles. Under this system, risk investigations are conducted. Corrective and remedial measures are taken through appropriate procedures when there is a possibility that our corporate activities may have a negative impact on human rights, or when such an impact is confirmed.

• Initiatives in FY2023
  We conducted human rights risk assessments of our company and domestic and overseas group companies. We conducted a questionnaire on human rights risks. We interviewed the persons in charge as necessary to grasp the actual situation. Since the Group is engaged in manufacturing and processing globally, we are mainly focused on ensuring the safety of the working environment, proper management of working hours, and prevention of forced labor and child labor. We analyzed and assessed the human rights risks we identified. In FY2024, based on the results of this assessment, we will establish priorities for response depending on the degree of impact of the human rights risks, as well as risk avoidance and prevention measures, and proceed with our initiatives in stages.

Initiatives with suppliers

The Nihon Parkerizing Group works with its suppliers to address social and environmental issues, including human rights due diligence.

Remedies

• Whistle-blowing
  When an employee discovers a compliance violation or a potential compliance violation, the employee is required to report it immediately. When an incident occurs, an investigation is immediately conducted　If a compliance violation is found, corrective measures are promptly taken. Measures to prevent recurrence are formulated and implemented. To protect whistleblowers, the system complies with the Whistleblower Protection Act, including the confidentiality of reported information and anonymous reporting.

• Whistle-blowing Rercord
  In FY 2023, the number of whistle-blowing record was 26. All reports were promptly and carefully investigated and responded to, and corrective measures, etc., were properly implemented as necessary.

• Number of compliance violations
  From FY2021 to FY2023 (April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2024), there were no significant compliance violations.

Employee engagement

We conducted an Employee Attitude Survey to identify the actual state of employee satisfaction and the issues that need to be addressed to further improve it. Compared to the previous study, we confirmed that satisfaction with training in skills and know-how, internal development systems, and contribution and discretion in work has improved. We will use the results of the survey to create a workplace where employees can feel fulfilled and work as the most important source of corporate activities.

Human rights enlightenment activities

We clearly state our fundamental approach to respect for human rights in our Compliance Handbook and disseminate it to all employees.

• Distribution Range: Nihon Parkerizing, consolidated subsidiaries, and Parker Netsushori Kogyo Co., Ltd.
• Language (9 languages): Japanese, English, Chinese (simplified, traditional), Korean, Malay, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Thai, Spanish

1. New employee training: We educate new employees on human rights to ensure that they understand the importance of human rights.
2. Training at the time of promotion: Human rights education is provided to raise awareness of human rights once again at various training opportunities, including at the time of promotion to higher positions and at the time of promotion to managerial positions.
3. Compliance training: In addition to awareness-raising through our monthly Compliance Newsletter, we conduct compliance training once a year. The training is given by qualified attorneys, who present actual cases of corporate compliance violations to teach participants how to prevent such violations.
4. E-learning: As an opportunity to learn about business and human rights, we offer an e-learning program for all employees. Through questions, answers, and explanations, this program allows employees to learn about global human rights issues and deepen their understanding of efforts to eliminate discrimination and harassment.
   We will continue to promote ongoing education so that every employee can deepen their knowledge of human rights and become properly aware of the relevant issues

Promoting Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to promoting diversity so all employees can leverage their diverse personal qualities and maximize their abilities.

We encourage flexible, diverse workstyles in ways that enable everyone to fully demonstrate their capabilities irrespective of differences in attributes such as age, gender, or having a child or other person to care for. We support employees in work-life balance by creating an environment that allows them to continue working despite various circumstances and enables them to work in a way that suits their lifestyles.

Basic Philosophy on Promotion of Diversity

According to the words of our founder, “The foundation of the business is people.” We recognize the need to respect the values of every employee and to make the most of each other's strengths to continue to meet the diversifying needs of our customers amidst the rapid progress of globalization.

We are actively working to promote diversity to change every employee’s motivation to work and way of working.

Promotion of Diversity: Initiatives and Achievements

(1) Developing a corporate culture where female employees can demonstrate their capabilities

Initiatives we have taken
Initiatives we have taken We have been working to create comfortable work environments for female employees. Specifically, our project team (Work Style Reform Committee) began reforming our corporate culture in 2016. To reform our awareness, the team eliminated the uniform requirements for female employees (allowing free dress) and held seminars for female employees and male managers with female subordinates (nine times total). We also promote initiatives involving Group companies as well. For example, in 2022, we held the Parker Group Special Lecture Meeting for Promoting Active Participation of Women. We have enhanced institutional aspects of the work-life balance measures as well. For example, we introduced a flextime system and a program for using company-driven daycare facilities in 2018 and established a teleworking system in 2021. We have thus been working to improve environments that enable female employees to continue working with peace of mind even when they are pregnant, after childbirth, and as they raise children.

(2) Other initiatives

Basic Approach to Recruitment

Nihon Parkerizing Group’s basic policy is to respect human rights and conduct recruitment activities without discrimination based on race, religion, gender, age, nationality, language, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other attributes. We select and hire candidates fairly and equitably by eliminating matters unrelated to vocational aptitude and job performance from the factors considered during selection. We believe hiring people with diverse values, backgrounds, and skills will lead to innovations and the sustainable growth and development of the Group and society.

Prevention of forced labor of non-Japanese and immigrant workers

When we employ agencies, we confirm that no business activities infringe on the human rights of job seekers. We prove that the agency has obtained a foreign worker dispatching license through documents and other information submitted by the agency and determine that activities are being appropriately implemented. We also confirm with the job seekers that the agency does not collect commission fees from the job seekers. We provide prospective employees with written statements in their native language or a language they understand, which clarify significant employment conditions (including the content of work, wages, and working hours). We also provide them with information for employment (including the work rules, occupational safety and health, performance review, access to dormitories, and who to contact in case of problems) in their native language or a language they understand.