Basic Approach
Our code of conduct enshrines our commitment to eradicating discrimination based on protected characteristics such as gender, nationality, age, racial or ethnic identity, religion, creed, or physical disability, and to eradicating workplace bullying and harassment (often known as “power harassment” in Japan), including sexual harassment and what is known in. Our rules of employment state that we treat employees equitably, giving due regard to the person’s aptitudes and abilities. The rules also set out guidelines and management processes for safeguarding human rights. In September 2023, we established the Prima Meat Packers Group Human Rights Policy.
Main Actions
Dedicated harassment-prevention body
Prima Management Service runs a hotline and helpdesk (the PMS Hotline & Helpdesk) for seeking advice or raising concerns about workplace bullying and harassment. Employees using the service can discuss the matter with a professional counselor via postal mail, fax, telephone, or email. Privacy is maintained, ensuring that the employee is protected from any retribution. Prima Management Service also issues reports to group companies to raise awareness and communicate its services.
Anti-harassment training
We run an annual anti-harassment training program for employees across Prima Meat Packers Group. The program consists of workshops for each group company and workplace. The content of the workshops depends on the participants and the number of workshops held in the past. In each case, the workshop is designed to raise awareness about value diversity and the need for sensitivity. We run the program every year as part of our effort to enhance anti-harassment training.
Assessing Human Rights Risks
In June 2023, we conducted a human rights risk assessment with Caux Round Table Japan and Mizuho Research & Technologies, Ltd. On the day of the assessment, we conducted a desktop survey (a preliminary review of the readily available information) and held a workshop about business and human rights to identify and evaluate major human rights risks across Prima Meat Packers Group. The major risks we identified concerned the working environment in Japan for non-Japanese workers, the working environment for contract workers, and the working conditions in our fresh meat suppliers, and the suppliers’ impacts on local residents’ environment.
The next step is to engage with the stakeholders who are exposed to the risks we identified. Such engagement is necessary to further evaluate these risks, develop the necessary remedial or preventive measures, and provide a mechanism for remedying grievances. As part of our human rights due diligence, we will conduct an impact assessment with a view to developing a series of processes (including remedial and preventive measures and processes for reviewing these measures) and disclosing our human rights performance.
We will also organize human-rights awareness campaigns for workers across Prima Meat Packers Group to help ensure that we fulfill our corporate responsibilities with respect to human rights.