Respect Human Rights

The SHIONOGI Group recognizes that it is our responsibility to respect for human rights of all individuals affected by our business activities. On 22 March 2020, we adopted the “SHIONOGI Group Human Rights Policy”, based on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2011.

The SHIONOGI group recognizes the following items are our Human Rights issues. These may be revised when necessary, because of future risk assesment.

Strict prohibition of discrimination

SHIONOGI prohibits all forms of discrimination in employment and at work. SHIONOGI will work for early discovery and prevention of harassment by setting up contact points for internal consultation and notification, and providing consultation staff members and employees with education on harassment.

Prohibition of child labor and forced labor

SHIONOGI will never allow child labor, forced labor, slave labor, human trafficking and any other conduct that goes against the maintenance of human dignity and respect.

Respecting basic labor rights

SHIONOGI guarantees freedom of association, respects the labor right to organize and the right of collective bargaining, and observes local laws.

Providing safe and healthy working conditions

SHIONOGI ensures a safe, healthy and comfortable workplace environment, and properly manages wage payment and working hours. It endeavors to prevent overwork by setting up a consultation service.

Improving diversity

SHIONOGI respects diverse values and will endeavor to improve diversity so that all people can grow and play active roles regardless of their race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disabilities.

Ensuring compliance

In accordance with the SHIONOGI Group Compliance Policy, SHIONOGI will endeavor to ensure compliance by all officers and employees of the SHIONOGI Group for the purpose of assuring compliance with laws and ethical behavior in its business activities.

Based on The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, SHIONOGI Group's initiatives are disclosed as a statement.

At SHIONOGI, we recognize "employees", "patients", "study participants, "consumers", "medical professionals", "suppliers", "civil society" and "governments" as the main rights holders that we can influence through our business. In addition, based on various human rights risk guides, we categorized global risks related to SHIONOGI into the 30 items shown in the table below. We further conducted an interview with NGO and refined the risks by interviewing departments about practical human rights risks.

● Labor situation in the production areas of raw and other materials

Four important items (cellulose, glass, ethanol, aluminum)

Based on PSCI*3 reports and a desktop survey by the CRT Japan Committee, we have identified cellulose, glass, ethanol, and aluminum as important items, and are conducting human rights risk assessments. For these important items, we are working to understand human rights risks through communication with primary suppliers. The survey methods and progress have been evaluated by the external expert. And we will continue to communicate with our primary suppliers and closely monitor the situation in order to understand human rights risks in the entire supply chain including the regions where raw materials are procured. When a negative impact becomes apparent, we will cooperate with the external expert to implement countermeasures and relief.

*3 Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative

Forced labor in rubber glove manufacturing in Malaysia

On August 19, 2022, we received information about forced labor in Malaysian rubber glove manufacturing from CRT Japan. And we immediately conducted a questionnaire survey of our tier1 suppliers of rubber gloves and investigated the situation within our group.

・Obtaining information: From an external expert, we obtained the information of forced labor in Malaysian rubber glove manufacturing and lawsuit against two major business partners of the manufacturing company (2022/8)

・Start of the investigation: We conducted investigation of the use of rubber gloves within our group. We conduct questionnaire survey through our tier1 suppliers to confirm whether the product we purchase was manufactured by the company in trouble. (2022/8)

・We found that one product that had been purchased in the past was manufactured by the company in trouble, but we have not purchased any more since then  (September 2022).

・Reporting to the external expert: We reported to the external expert that the relevant product had been purchased. Through interviewing the external expert, we confirmed that there was no problem because of no purchase or no use at the time of the survey. (October 2022).

・Completion of the investigation: Survey responses were obtained from all direct suppliers, and it was confirmed that we did not purchased any rubber gloves manufactured by the relevant companies at the time of survey (October 2022).

Although we had purchased the relevant product in the past, we confirmed that it was not purchased or used at the time of the problem recognition. We will continue to monitor the improvement of forced labor at the relevant company.

●  Labor situation of foreign workers

In response to the problem of technical intern trainees in Japan, we conducted a survey within our own group and a questionnaire survey of major suppliers of the therapeutic drugs and preventive vaccines for COVID-19. We confirmed that there are no technical intern trainees in our own group and major suppliers. The results are evaluated by the external expert.  Based on the advice, we will consider expanding the scope of the survey to include subcontractors, as our group has a major responsibility for the therapeutic drugs and preventive vaccines for COVID-19.

SHIONOGI has been addressing “Labor situations in the production areas of raw and other materials” and “Labor situation of foreign workers in Japan” through the human rights due diligence process based on the UNGPs.

In addition, through these experiences, they have established a management system that allows them to implement initiatives, when a human rights issue of concern emerges, incorporating an external perspective that reflects requests from outside parties such as rights holders, NGOs, and experts.

Regarding the confirmation process of human rights violations related to forced labor at a rubber glove manufacturing in Malaysia, which CRT Japan pointed out in August this year, it is noteworthy that they were able to promptly confirm the facts by October in cooperation with multiple departments. I greatly value their effort.

I would like to see them promptly respond and confirm the fact using the same process when new human rights issues arise, and establish a management system that can identify potential risks at an early stage.

November 3, 2022

Hiroshi Ishida

Executive Director, CRT-Japan

2020年

To enhance our activities to respect for Human Rights, we held a dialogue with overseas experts on Human Rights in 2020.

・Hiroshi Ishida（Caux Round Table Japan）

・Gus MacFarlane （Verisk Maplecroft）

・Pauliina Murphy （World Benchmarking Alliance）

2021年

In October 2021, we held a dialogue with overseas experts on  Human Rights and discussed about the result of our Human Rights Impact Assessment in 2021.

・Hiroshi Ishida（Caux Round Table Japan）

・Neill Wilkins （Institute for Human Rights and Business）

・Camille Le Pors （Lead, Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, World Benchmarking Alliance）

For details of our efforts, refer to the Dialogue in 2021 page on our website.

We report the plans and results of initiatives related to ESG including human rights to the Board of Directors once every six months. And we are proceeding with the commitment of management. The action plan of human rights for fiscal 2022 was approved by  the Board of Directors meeting in September 2023, and the results will be reported during FY2023.

In addition, based on the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, we disclosed our initiatives for FY2022 as a statement which was deliberated and approved by the Board of Directors in September 2023.

SHIONOGI conduct Regular Human Rights education.

Based on the SHIONOGI Group Human Rights Policy, shionogi group respects Human Rgihts of all business partners.

We prohibit forced labor, including any forms of discrimination and child labor, and respect the rights of workers.

We have established a consultation and reporting hotline for all individuals, including employees and business partners, to seek advice and report any concerns. For details on consultations and reports received through this hotline, please refer to the "Other Inquiries" page.

Furthermore, SHIONOGI will work for early discovery and prevention of harassment by setting up contact points for internal consultation and notification, and providing consultation staff members and employees with education on harassment.