Corporate
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Global
Corporate
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Global
The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) adopted by the United Nations in 2011 make it clear that every business enterprise has a responsibility to respect human rights. Worldwide, the body of human rights-related laws, regulations, and rules for companies is evolving. In recent years, human rights initiatives in accordance with the UNGPs have imposed progressively greater mandatory obligations on companies, and fulfillment of those obligations is becoming increasingly important from the perspective of business continuity.
From the viewpoint of the sustainable enhancement of corporate value, we established respect for human rights in the value chain as one of the material sustainability issues under SF2030. We believe that human rights initiatives throughout the entire value chain will become an indispensable component of enhancing corporate value.
Based on this background, we established a new human rights policy based on the UNGPs approach in March 2022.
OMRON Group (hereinafter referred to as 窶廾MRON窶), which consists of OMRON Corporation and its subsidiaries, has established this OMRON Human Rights Policy (hereinafter referred to as 窶徼his Policy窶), to fulfill its corporate responsibility in respecting human rights in accordance with 窶廾MRON Principles窶, and to ensure that our management practices and actions are always in line with those of the international community.
This Policy applies to all executives and employees of OMRON in order to ensure respect towards the human rights of all stakeholders involved in the OMRON Group value chain. We also expect all business partners of OMRON, including suppliers and distributors, to understand and support the content of this Policy, and will continue to work to ensure that this Policy is respected.
We declare that OMRON will carry out human rights due diligence in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and will avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts in our value chain.
To meet the above-mentioned commitment, OMRON respects human rights as those expressed in the International Bill of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. OMRON Corporation has also signed the United Nations Global Compact and upholds the 10 Principles of the United Nations Global Compact. We will respect the above internationally recognized human rights principles based on compliance with all the laws and regulations of each country and region in which we operate.
OMRON will identify human rights-related issues to focus on throughout all our business processes, including development, procurement, production, distribution, and sales, and take the appropriate measures to deal with them.
1. Discrimination or Other Unreasonable Treatment
OMRON does not tolerate any discrimination, acts that hurt the dignity of an individual, harassment or treat others in an unreasonable manner on the basis of national origin, citizenship, color, race, belief, religion, ancestry, marital status, gender, disabilities, age, sexual orientation, gender identification, place of birth, social status, or any other basis prohibited by local law.
2. Forced Labor and Child Labor
OMRON does not tolerate any forced labor or child labor including slavery and human trafficking.
3. Privacy and Personal Information
OMRON respects the privacy of all persons and will use all reasonable care to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of personal data. OMRON complies with the laws and regulations of countries and regions related to the protection of personal information and does not tolerate unauthorized disclosure of or access to such data.
4. Harassment
OMRON does not tolerate any action that causes physical or mental distress such as sexual harassment or power harassment*.
5. Occupational Safety and Health
OMRON will strive to create and maintain a safe and healthy working environment where persons working in each workplace can fully demonstrate their abilities.
6. Ethical Use of Technology
OMRON will take account of potential impact for human rights caused by technologies such as AI, robotics and IoT, and will take advantage of them appropriately to avoid problems, including but not limited to cause of accident, discrimination and invasion of privacy.
All persons at OMRON, from operation-level staff members to senior management, will work together to establish a system ensuring the execution of our responsibility for respecting human rights at the global level. As for the system to assume the responsibility covering OMRON窶冱 entire value chain, the Senior General Manager of the Global Human Resources and Administration HQ and the Senior General Manager of the Global Procurement, Quality and Logistics HQ and the Senior General Managers of the related business divisions, who have been delegated authority from the President and CEO, will be responsible for promoting respect for human rights for OMRON companies and supply chains, respectively. Important points concerning our commitment fulfillment for respecting human rights will be decided by the Board of Directors. The execution status of this decision will be reported to the Board of Directors by the President and CEO and monitored and supervised by the Board of Directors.
To fulfill our responsibility for respecting human rights, OMRON will carry out human rights due diligence in accordance with this Policy. OMRON will assess impacts that our activities have on human rights and will commit to avoid or mitigate any adverse impacts identified. OMRON will strive to use its leverage in the impact of our business relationships on human rights that are directly linked to the operations, products or services of the group so that this Policy will be respected.
Should it become apparent that we have caused or have contributed to adverse impacts on human rights through any of our business activities, OMRON will provide for remediation through appropriate processes.
OMRON will implement activities set forth in this Policy through consultation and communication with various internal and external stakeholders.
OMRON aims to realize fair and transparent management practices. We will disclose results from and progress of the human rights due diligence we carry out as appropriate exercising the utmost care for the affected stakeholders and trade secrets.
In order to ensure that this Policy is embedded within all members across OMRON, OMRON provides appropriate education and training to all executives and employees. We will also encourage business partners such as suppliers and distributors to fully comprehend this Policy.
This Policy was formulated with the approval of the Board of Directors of OMRON Corporation. To effectively address human rights issues that may change in response to social trends and the changing business environments, this Policy will be undergone periodic reviews and revisions.
(Established: March 1, 2022)
OMRON is working to build a system in which management and front-line employees work together to fulfill their responsibility to respect human rights on a global basis.
The President & CEO delegates authority to each executive division head, who is then responsible for promoting respect for human rights, ensuring responsibility through the entire value chain. The President & CEO also reports to the Board of Directors on matters that are important in fulfilling our commitment to respect for human rights, and the Board of Directors monitors and supervises these matters. This process ensures responsibility throughout the entire value chain. We appointed a director in charge of human rights in fiscal 2023.
The Sustainability Committee receives reports and deliberates on all plans to address human rights responses and identified risks of salient human rights abuses as the decision-making forum for sustainability management issues. The sustainability officer chairs the committee, while members consist of the head of the head office functional divisions and the heads of each business company planning department. The committee works to implement high-cycle decision-making and discusses business implementation.
OMRON established a Human Rights Policy in 2022 which respects the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and fulfills our corporate responsibility to respect human rights by developing procedures to identify, prevent, mitigate, and remedy adverse human rights impacts.
OMRON began implementing company-wide human rights impact assessments in fiscal 2017 as a part of our human rights due diligence process. We also conduct regular systematic reviews of risk mapping to identify potential issues.
In fiscal 2021, we reviewed our human rights initiatives under VG2.0, our medium-term management plan implemented between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2020, and reassessed the key human rights issues relevant to our business. We also assessed the impact of OMRON technologies on human rights. We clarified the results of these assessments as Specific Human Rights Issues in the Human Rights Policy established in March 2022.
In fiscal 2022, we conducted a group-wide human rights impact assessment based on the UNGPs in collaboration with the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a US non-profit organization. In conducting this assessment, we evaluated and identified human rights risks that the OMRON Group may cause or contribute to through our business activities throughout our value chain, including the supply chain. Results found that forced labor, including slave labor, is a priority issue with potential risks at our production sites and within our supply chain in Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. Among these areas, we found particularly high potential risk among foreign national temporary and contract workers involved in production.
Our first step in conducting the human rights impact assessments was to survey international standards, industry trends, and stakeholder trends, as well as interview 15 divisions throughout OMRON, including regional headquarters outside Japan. After comprehensively identifying human rights issues based on international human rights standards, we narrowed issues down to those specific to the electrical and electronics industry. We also identified up to 19 issues in our value chain that could affect rights holders. Finally, we mapped and prioritized risks based on risk severity and relevance to business, enabling the identification of seven priority issues (salient human rights issues) to be addressed.
In fiscal 2025, each responsible department is formulating and advancing action plans to address the seven issues identified in the fiscal 2022 human rights impact assessment.
Our assessments are based on the OECD Due Diligence Guidelines, and we use the Self-Assessment Questionnaire and other tools provided by the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA).
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OMRON identified respect for human rights as a material sustainability issue in our 2030 Long-Term Vision. We set long-term targets through 2030, as well as medium-term targets through fiscal 2024. During this medium-term target period, we ensured that global employees were familiar with and understood the new OMRON Human Rights Policy. We also established a global human rights governance system by conducting human rights due diligence and establishing a human rights remedy mechanism in line with the UNGPs.
In addition, we conduct risk management based on a common Group framework called Integrated Risk Management, and defined human rights risk as one of the significant Group risks.
OMRON conducts annual assessments using the RBA assessment tool at our production sites and suppliers identified as high human rights risk in past impact assessments. We then implement corrective and preventive measures to address any adverse impacts on human rights.
OMRON uses the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) from the RBA to survey and assess the status of our global production sites. In fiscal 2024, we used the SAQ and other self-assessment tools to survey and assess 22 production sites in Japan, China, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. We are continuing the use of SAQ in fiscal 2025.
OMRON made efforts to improve health, safety, and labor conditions based on the human rights impact assessment conducted in fiscal 2022. Our efforts included monitoring occupational accidents by region according to risk level and globally tracking long working hours under RBA standards.
We also monitored onsite contractor human rights and labor practices. When employees from onsite contractors started working within our sites, we communicated with them about our human rights policy and our initiatives to respect human rights. We also informed the employees of grievance mechanisms available for use, including human rights consultation desks and our whistleblower system.
For the onsite leaders of contractors, we conducted human rights training sessions and requested they share their learnings with other onsite members. Furthermore, we requested the onsite contractors to comply with the OMRON Group Supplier Code of Conduct, provide information on onsite personnel, and ensure secondary suppliers are fully aware of the code. We require them to confirm their agreement in writing.
Moreover, at the Japanese production sites where foreign technical intern trainees are employed by onsite contractors, human rights leaders examined the employment conditions of the trainees and confirmed that there were no cases of recruitment fees paid by workers themselves, that contracts were concluded with foreign workers in their native languages or a language they understood, and that identification documents are retained by the workers themselves.
Our production site in Malaysia underwent an RBA Validated Assessment Program (VAP) audit, implemented corrective actions for issues identified by third-party auditors, and achieved Silver recognition.
OMRON conducts a periodic review of our suppliers to remedy and prevent human rights-related issues in our supply chains. Specifically, we ask suppliers to self-assess their compliance with the OMRON Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines, including human rights compliance and labor practices. We then request any improvements required. Assessments are conducted annually for 60 critical suppliers and at least once every three years for other suppliers.
Based on the results of the human rights impact assessments, we designated suppliers with production bases in China and Malaysia in particular as targets of our initiatives through fiscal 2024. Our specific initiatives in fiscal 2024 included more detailed human rights self-checks, review of disclosure information, and individual interviews. These initiatives targeted 151 suppliers in China that had not conducted self-checks in fiscal 2023, and 5 suppliers in Malaysia that had not responded to self-checks in fiscal 2023 and were considered high risk for human rights due to employing foreign workers from neighboring countries. After reviewing supplier responses, we conducted an on-site survey at one supplier in China identified as high risk. Our investigation confirmed that no personnel had been designated or trained to provide medical first aid to injured or ill workers. OMRON pointed out this issue to the supplier, which is now making improvements based on a corrective action plan.
The Sustainability Promotion Committee assesses our efforts on sustainability issues annually, including human rights issues, submitting a report to the Executive Council and the Board of Directors.
We report our human rights initiatives to all stakeholders through our website, integrated reports, and annual securities reports.
In our Sustainability Policy, OMRON states: 窶弩e cultivate strong relationships with all of our stakeholders through responsible engagement.窶 In our human rights initiatives, we will engage in periodic dialogues with external human rights experts to deepen our understanding of respect for human rights in accordance with international standards and increase the effectiveness of our initiatives.
Ms. Asako Nagai
Managing Director, BSR (Business for Social Responsibility)
OMRON established the OMRON Human Rights Policy as part of its management practices in line with its Corporate Philosophy and is steadily advancing initiatives in line with international Business and Human Rights. The Company works towards the medium to long term, clarifying its system of responsibility, including for the board of directors, and setting targets for 2030. At the same time, OMRON conducts commendable company-wide human rights impact assessments in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as part of its human rights due diligence and promotes initiatives at its own sites and in certain supply chains. Going forward, I expect OMRON to further strengthen its activities in the following three main areas: 1) continuous risk mitigation in the company and its supply chain, 2) risk mitigation in the use of its products and services, including the use of responsible technology (such as AI) and customer due diligence, and 3) the establishment of stakeholder engagement.
OMRON sets every October as Corporate Ethics Month to implement sincere and fair business practices. During this month, we deliver top management messages and conduct workplace training for officers and employees globally, including subsidiaries. Our fiscal 2024 human rights training focused on business and human rights, and aimed to raise awareness of the OMRON Human Rights Policy and international standards. We conducted this training through e-learning, and 98.5% of employees worldwide, including onsite contractors, completed the program, deepening understanding of respect for human rights. The training also highlighted our grievance systems, including our human rights consultation desks and compliance hotline. After training, we conducted a human rights survey of all participants and promptly implemented remedial measures as necessary. We also held training sessions for managers and those who raise awareness and lead efforts to encourage respect for human rights. This training aimed to strengthen knowledge and facilitate an understanding of the priority issues OMRON addresses based on international standards.
OMRON remains committed to ensuring that everyone working at our sites is treated with dignity and respect and can work in a safe and secure environment.
Global regulations and societal expectations regarding human rights have become more concrete. Supply chain management and responses to external evaluations are increasingly prioritized as management responsibilities in addition to compliance with laws, regulations, and international standards. Respect for human rights must be addressed throughout the value chain. As such, top management must have an in-depth understanding of international standards and social demands in business and human rights, and link this understanding to more effective initiatives. We provide training and information to directors and corporate auditors as necessary to enable them to properly fulfill their roles and responsibilities.
In Japan, to enhance human rights awareness more effectively and efficiently, the OMRON Group established the Basic Rules for Human Rights Awareness Promotion as common rules for all Group companies in Japan. In accordance with these rules, the Central Human Rights Committee chaired by Senior General Manager of Global Human Resources and Administration HQ has been established at OMRON headquarters. Under this core organization, a human rights committee has been set up at each OMRON Corporation site and each of the Group companies in Japan, working to raise human rights awareness among all employees in Japan.
The OMRON Group Human Rights Policy stipulates that the Group will not engage in discrimination, acts that offend personal dignity, harassment, or other unfair treatment of any kind, regardless of nationality, citizenship, place of birth, race, color, creed, religion, ancestry (ethnicity), marital status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, social status, or other grounds specified by local laws and regulations.
The OMRON Human Rights Policy prohibits all forced labor and child labor, including slavery and human trafficking. OMRON Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines prohibit forced labor in our supply chain, including slavery and human trafficking, in our supply chain. We require all suppliers to comply with these guidelines.
The OMRON Group Human Rights Policy declares that we respect the privacy of each individual, handle personal information with the utmost care, comply with national and regional laws and regulations related to the protection of personal information, and that will not tolerate leaks or unnecessary attempts to obtain personal information.
Under the supervision of the director in charge of cyber security, the general manager of the Global Risk Management and Legal HQ is responsible for the management of confidential and personal information. Divisions established under the supervision of the general manager monitor trends in the laws and regulations of each country and the status of the OMRON Group, pursuing any measures necessary.
We conducted a human rights impact assessment in fiscal 2021 regarding how our AI, robotics, IoT, and other technologies could affect human rights. Based on the results, we formulated the OMRON AI Policy in June 2024 to establish an AI governance structure. We strive to raise awareness of the appropriate use of AI within the OMRON Group based on this policy, aiming for the safe and secure use of AI and the minimization of accidents and risks of human rights abuse arising from the use of AI.
We also established the AI Governance Committee in March 2024. This committee supports the appropriate use of AI and reduces risks in accordance with the OMRON AI Policy. The committee also establishes governance structures and processes, gathers information, and provides advice on meeting the guidelines for AI providers stipulated by the government. The AI Governance Committee will continue to address necessary legal compliance, formulate and revise guidelines, and respond to specific consultations from Group divisions regarding the use of AI.
Through these efforts, OMRON strives to strengthen AI governance and prevent the occurrence of human rights abuses through our products and services.
We at the OMRON Group (in Japan) have established consultation desks for human rights at all business locations. We appoint sexual and power harassment advisors, human rights committee members, and those in charge of human rights issues from among our employees. By posting these contacts and departments through the intranet and business office bulletin boards, as well as offering one-on-one, telephone- or email-based consultation, we are working to create an environment in which anyone can feel at ease and comfortable to talk to.
When advice is sought, the Group works to solve issues based on the defined, prepared escalation process, specifically as follows:
The OMRON Group implements a global whistleblower system. Our whistleblower hotline enables employees to report their concerns to and seek advice from internal reporting offices located globally on discrimination, harassment, and other human rights issues, as well as violations of laws, regulations, internal rules, and unethical behavior. Reports may be made anonymously unless prohibited by the laws and regulations of the respective countries.
All information received is handled with strict confidentiality, and the Group guarantees that whistleblowers will not suffer retaliation or any disadvantage for making a report. The OMRON Group confirms the details of reports received in a neutral and fair manner and takes the appropriate measures.
The OMRON Group accepts reports from suppliers in all regions. Suppliers may also use the compliance hotline to report suspected misconduct or seek advice. Reported cases are handled with strict confidentiality, and the Group guarantees that whistleblowers will not suffer retaliation or any disadvantage for making a report. The OMRON Group confirms the details of reports received in a neutral and fair manner and takes the appropriate measures.
Contact points vary by region. For details, please refer to the OMRON Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines
OMRON Group Sustainable Procurement Guidelines
Japanese (PDF) English (PDF) Chinese (PDF) Portuguese (PDF) Spanish (PDF) French (PDF)
The OMRON Group joined the Japan Center for Engagement and Remedy on Business and Human Rights (JaCER) as a full member in fiscal 2022. JaCER offers the Engagement and Remedy Platform, a non-judicial grievance platform in compliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
In addition to the aforementioned internal and external consultation services, the OMRON Group accepts grievances and consultations on human rights from all stakeholders through JaCER. Stakeholders include local communities, customers, and secondary and subsequent suppliers with whom we have no direct business relationship. Reporting forms are available in Japanese, English, and Chinese, and an automatic translation function enables submissions in 32 additional languages.
We safeguard privacy and confidentiality and guarantee that whistleblowers will not suffer retaliation or any disadvantage for making a report. Anonymous reporting is also available, allowing whistleblowers to use the system with peace of mind. The OMRON Group confirms the details of reports received in a neutral and fair manner, takes the appropriate measures, and discloses progress and outcomes on the Grievance List published on the JaCER website.
*An additional 32 languages are accessible from the English form
We at the OMRON Group disclose contact information on our corporate website to respond to inquiries from customers, shareholders, investors, and other stakeholders.
