Case study: How ASE provides employees with a safe and healthy work environment
As a leading global provider of semiconductor manufacturing services, striving to meet the electronics industry’s growing needs, with sales and manufacturing facilities strategically located around the globe – in Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, America and Europe –, protecting the health and safety of its employees is a top priority for ASE Tweet This!.
This case study is based on the 2016 Corporate Sustainability Report by ASE published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Abstract
Preventing occupational accidents and ensuring the health and safety of its over 66,000 employees worldwide is highly important for ASE. In order to provide employees with a safe and healthy work environment ASE took action to:
- implement an OHS management system
- promote disaster and emergency preparedness
- provide employees with health and medical care
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) ASE has identified;
- How ASE proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by ASE to provide employees with a safe and healthy work environment
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2016 Corporate Sustainability Report ASE identified a range of material issues, such as regulatory compliance, waste management, water resource management, labor/management relations. Among these, providing employees with a safe and healthy work environment stands out as a key material issue for ASE.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups ASE engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Customers | · Customer quarterly business review meeting · Customer audits · Technical forums · Customer service platform |
| Employees
| · GM mailbox · Intranet website · Satisfaction survey on employees · Dedicated employee helpline |
| Shareholders
| · Annual financial reports · Quarterly earnings release · Annual shareholder meeting · Institutional investors’ conference |
| Suppliers | · Supplier questionnaire survey · Supplier on-site audits · Annual supplier forum · Supplier capacity-building activities |
| Government | · Communication meetings, conferences, forums or seminars held by government authorities · Proactive dialogue with government authorities · Reporting through government portal |
| Community | · ASE Charity Foundation · ASE Cultural and Educational Foundation · Employee volunteer activities · Community perception surveys and needs assessments |
| Industry Unions and Associations | · Organizational member conference · Technology forums held by industry unions/associations |
| Media | · Press releases · Spokesperson interviews · Company’s website |
| NGOs | · Communication meetings, forums, seminars or workshops held by NGOs · Company’s website · Volunteer activity cooperation with NGOs |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritize material issues ASE engaged with its stakeholders through a survey – 866 questionnaires were completed by stakeholders.
What actions were taken by ASE to provide employees with a safe and healthy work environment?
In its 2016 Corporate Sustainability Report ASE reports that it took the following actions for providing employees with a safe and healthy work environment:
- Implementing an OHS management system
- ASE implements an OHS (occupational health and safety) management system to prevent all types of accidents and ensure employees’ health and safety. The OHS management system covers occupational safety, emergency response, work injury and occupational disease prevention, industrial hygiene, physical labor work, machinery protection, public health and accommodation, and health and safety information. Additionally, every year ASE assesses and identifies risks for all new or modified manufacturing processes, determining risks and applying control procedures where needed.
- Promoting disaster and emergency preparedness
- All ASE manufacturing facilities have disaster response and recovery plans and, once a year, carry out full-scale emergency drills in cooperation with local authorities. Some of ASE’s facilities are located in earthquake and typhoon prone areas, and these drills enable the company to effectively prevent major damages to human lives or buildings, as well as disruptions to its production processes. In 2016, ASE conducted 937 drills for earthquakes, fire and chemical disasters.
- Providing employees with health and medical care
- ASE offers employees complete health and medical care, which includes preventative care, statutory infectious disease emergency response procedures and emergency rescue response procedures. By monitoring and analyzing employees’ health records, ASE is able to identify risk areas affecting employees’ health and to actively improve their physical well-being.
Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?
The GRI indicator addressed in this case is: G4-LA7: Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation and the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 403-3 Workers with high incidence or high risk of diseases related to their occupation
78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by ASE, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page
3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx
4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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