Friendly Workplace

Issue Date：August 2, 2023
 

Health Care

“How to add value to employees’ health” has always been an issue of concern to us. With support and commitment from our management, we have created a friendly and healthy workplace while raising employees’ health awareness, keeping tabs on employees’ health data, and tracking and managing high-risk employees. We even continue to promote various health promotion measures despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. With “prevention of metabolic syndrome” as our primary target in 2022, we rolled out the “iHealth Program,” an intelligent gym that runs on the uGym software developed by our subsidiary, uCare Medical Electronics, with the aim of cultivating an exercise habit among employees and encouraging them to exercise for a healthy body and mind in a systematic manner. In addition, we were awarded the work-life balance subsidy from the Ministry of Labor to hold stress relief classes for employees, thereby protecting employees’ physical and mental health in a comprehensive manner.

Health Management

• Annual health examination
  Taiwan plants: Annual health examination is conducted at a frequency higher than required by law. Employees with abnormal health examination results are immediately notified of their situation and given assistance in referring them to a doctor. At the same time, we also take the initiative to offer employees with a blood sugar level of more than 100mg/dl before meals free glycated hemoglobin tests to facilitate early detection and treatment. Since middle-aged and elderly employees are more prone to cardiovascular diseases, employees over 45 years old and those with stage 2 hypertension are provided with free electrocardiogram tests.
  Wujiang plants: Employees engaging in special operations (e.g., forklift operators, electrical and low-voltage electrical technicians, etc.) undergo annual health examination as required by the RBA. A total of 59 employees engaging in special operations underwent annual health examination in 2022.
• Annual health examination for employees engaging in special operations
  Taiwan plants: The health examination items for such employees in Taiwan include noise, lead, n-hexane, dust, cadmium, and nickel. A total of 86 employees engaging in special operations were examined for such items, representing a 100% participation rate.
  China plants: The health examination items for such employees in China include dust, acetone, butanone, benzene, toluene, xylene, n-heptane, isopropanol, methanol, cyclohexane, tin dioxide, noise, ionizing radiation, acrylic acid, laser radiation, ultraviolet radiation, and anhydrous ethanol. A total of 605 employees engaging in special operations were examined for such items, representing a 100% participation rate. For employees with abnormal health examination results, arrangements will be made for them to undergo re-examination and follow up. If such abnormal test results appear for two consecutive times and these items belong to occupational contraindications, the employee involved will be transferred to other positions so as to avoid health hazards arising from repeated exposure. In 2023, a total of 13 employees at Kunshan plants were transferred to other positions due to abnormal health examination results.

Health Protection

In line with emerging workplace health issues under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, we are working with occupational safety and health personnel and occupational disease specialists to jointly implement four programs in workers’ physical and mental health management, ranging from hazard identification, risk assessment, and risk control to effectiveness evaluation, in hopes of effectively minimize the risks of exposure to hazards and occupational diseases among employees.

• Operations manuals are formulated in response of maternal health, human factors engineering, and abnormal workload (plants in Taiwan).
• Wujiang plants selected 22 types of high-risk jobs according to the results of human factors assessments, in order to provide health guidance and formulate improvement measures.
• No cases of occupational diseases were reported at Coretronic in 2022.

Health Promotion

• We continue to formulate annual health promotion programs based on annual health examination results and employees’ health needs, and conduct various health promotion activities such as cancer screening for women, influenza vaccination, and nutrition and essential oil seminars, with a view to raising employees’ health awareness and creating a healthy, lively, comfortable, and friendly workplace. Thanks to these initiatives, we were honored with the “Silver Award of 2022 Corporate Health Responsibility (CHR)” by CommonHealth Magazine.
• 1,335 employees participated in 40 health promotion activities held in Taiwan and China in 2022.
• The “iHealth Program,” an intelligent gym developed by Coretronic According to employees’ health examination results from 2018 to 2021, there has been a continuous rise in the proportion of employees with metabolic syndrome over the years. Since metabolic syndrome is closely connected to dietary and living habits, we can avoid threats from a host of chronic diseases if we take proactive efforts to correct the metabolic syndrome situation. In an effort to address the metabolic syndrome problem among our employees, we specifically invited 99 employees with metabolic syndrome to attend a total of five training sessions over a four-week period via the “iHealth Program,” an intelligent gym that runs on the uGym software developed by our subsidiary, uCare Medical Electronics, with the aim of cultivating an exercise habit among employees and encouraging them to exercise for a healthy body and mind in a systematic manner, so as to maximize the benefits of a healthy workplace.

COVID-19 Prevention Measures

2022 was a year with a staggering increase in the number of COVID-19 cases around the globe. Under the leadership of the CFO, who was also the pandemic prevention commander at Coretronic, the Pandemic Response Team continued to collect information on the COVID-19 pandemic, adjust relevant COVID-19 prevention measures on a rolling basis, and make group-wide announcements on COVID-19 prevention in accordance with the COVID-19 prevention policies promulgated by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC). At the same time, the Pandemic Response Team also continued to monitor employees’ health status, encourage employees to get vaccinated, ensure that employees keep their environment clean and disinfected from time to time, remind employees to cut down on overseas travel, and provide them with COVID-19 travel kits to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection and protect employees’ health in a comprehensive manner.

• Monitor employees’ health status
  1. Employees were continuously required to fill out the COVID-19 survey form and record their body temperatures on a daily basis. Any employees with discomfort and related symptoms were denied entry into plants and required to report their cases to the relevant authorities and seek medical treatment immediately.
  2. Employees who were diagnosed with COVID-19 were required to report their cases to the relevant authorities according to COVID-19 reporting mechanism and undergo home isolation based on the instructions provided in the relevant announcements. The Health Management Department would proactively track their health status and provide them with care, as well as verify their health status before they return to work at plants.
  3. Employees with long COVID-19 conditions were provided with health consultation and referred for follow-up treatment.
  4. Logistical support for accommodation staff and COVID-19 prevention-related work were put in place in light of the lockdown of Kunshan City.
  5. Wujiang plants developed the Real-time PCR ID Card Scanner to improve the efficiency of real-time PCR tests and reduce cross-infection among personnel. These scanners were not only provided to Kunshan plants, but also donated to the Jiangsu Wujiang Comprehensive Free Trade Zone Administration, thereby demonstrating our COVID-19 prevention capabilities.
  6. Plants in China were equipped with adequate COVID-19 antigen test kits and medications for COVID-19 treatment for use by employees in need at any time. In addition, these plants also conducted real-time PCR tests on all employees, which saw the participation of 530,000 people in total, as required by local management committees.
• Adjust COVID-19 prevention and management measures at plants on a rolling basis
  1. We increased the frequency of disinfection in public areas within plants, and engaged professional cleaning companies to carry out comprehensive environmental disinfection in the event of multiple COVID-19 cases in the office area to avoid the spread of COVID-19 infections.
  2. We required employees to take their meals at their own seats and reduced the number of seats at canteens and cafés.
  3. We made mask wearing and social distancing mandatory for all personnel entering plants, and restricted the number of people in meeting and training rooms.
  4. Hand sanitizers were made available in meeting rooms, at the entrance of elevators, canteens, and cafés for use by employees.
• Implement access control for external personnel
  1. Visitors and guests were required to fill out a health declaration before entering plants.
  2. We restricted the area where external personnel such as customers, guests, customers, and vendors can move around within plants.
  3. Employees returning from overseas business trips were required to carry out COVID-19 prevention and management in accordance with the COVID-19 prevention rules promulgated by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (TCDC).
• Full vaccination rates: Up to 90.2% of employees and dispatched workers at plants in Taiwan have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, which was higher than the average full vaccination rate across Taiwan. Meanwhile, 94.7% of employees at plants in China were fully vaccinated, which was higher than the requirements of local government agencies.