Nova Tech’s principal activities include the design of process supply systems for the high-tech industry, contracting, equipment manufacturing, mechanical installation, and the manufacture, sale, installation and testing of environmental protection equipment. At Nova Tech, occupational safety and health of employees is a prerequisite for business operations. Nova Tech fulfils its corporate social responsibility and meets its policy and management objectives through an occupational safety management system and continuous
monitoring and management of occupational safety.
Occupational safety and health management policy and system
In 2006, Nova Tech introduced the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Safety and Health Management System. In 2018, following the publication of the ISO 45001 Occupational Safety and
Health Management System by ISO International, Nova Tech has voluntarily followed ISO 45001 and will obtain ISO 45001 certification in 2019, with ongoing re-certification in 2023. With reference to ISO 45001, we have developed a “Work Health and Safety Policy” and related procedures and standards of practice, and follow the management process and spirit of PDCA (Plan-> Do -> Confirm -> Act) to maintain systematic operation and implement HSE management.
Nova Tech’s “Work Health and Safety Policy” applies to all employees and contractors, as well as to company contractors and interns. We have incorporated these standards into our procedures to ensure that every employee complies with the relevant health and safety requirements. In addition, internal audits will cover our health and safety practices to ensure the effectiveness and compliance of our health and safety management system. Through regular internal audits, we are able to identify potential safety risks and issues and take appropriate measures to address them in a timely manner, thereby continuously improving our safety and health management.
Thanks to the efforts of all Nova Tech employees and workers, in 2023, Nova Tech was once again certified by the Industrial Safety and Health Association (ISHA) as a Disaster-Free Work Hour Record and recognised by its customer (Micron) as an excellent EHS management vendor. For the first time, Nova Tech was also recognised as a Top Performer under the Corporate Sustainability Report for its proactive assessment of publicly available occupational health and safety metrics.
Occupational Safety and Health Committee
Nova Tech has established their Occupational Safety and Health Committee according to law. In 2023, the total number of committee members was 8, with the general manager as the head member. Amongst them, there were 5 labour representatives, and the proportion of labour representatives was 63%. Occupational safety and health issues of contractors are discussed and exchanged at the agreement Organization meetings.
In the spirit of continuous improvement of the HSE management system, the Occupational Safety and Health Committee regularly discusses and reviews the results of HSE activities and management performance based on occupational safety and health issues at its meetings to assist the company in monitoring and executing relevant plans on occupational health and safety. In addition, Nova Tech will hold an annual meeting for all employees at the end of each year, where the industrial safety department will report on environmental and occupational safety and health management issues and enhance the dissemination of relevant cases, and is committed to safety and health management, accident prevention and workplace health promotion. We hope that all employees will comply with the regulations, work in a safe and healthy environment, and work together to reduce potential safety,health and environmental risks.
Shock Management and Emergency Response Procedures for Occupational Health and Safety
Nova Tech attaches great importance to the health and safety of employees and is committed to building a safe and healthy workplace. We regularly hold training and drills for various types of disasters at the operations according to the established “Emergency Preparation and Response Procedures” to make sure that emergency response drills are effective. This enables our employees to better adapt to accidents, to avoid or reduce casualties, property losses, and environmental impacts. In 2023, Nova Tech conducted a chemical spillage emergency response training. In the future, we will continue to conduct emergency response training for various types of hazards in accordance with the needs of our operating bases.
Occupational Accident Notification System
Management Procedures for employees to follow in order to effectively implement safety and health management and to prevent injuries or accidents caused by internal and/or external personnel (including contractors) in various operations, activities, products, services, facilities, etc.. In order to protect personnel and stakeholders from safety, health, and financial losses, Nova Tech improves the effectiveness of safety and health management through continuous proactive hazard identification, risk assessment, and appropriate prevention or enforcement of necessary control measures to achieve the management goal of ‘Zero Disaster, Zero Accident’.
In addition, Nova Tech has formulated the ‘Accident Notification and Investigation Management Procedures’ for employees to follow, which stipulates that if employees report occupational hazards and dangerous conditions, or leave a dangerous scene on their own under hazardous conditions, they will not be subject to disciplinary action in order to protect the safety of employees. In accordance with the ‘Accident Notification and Investigation Management Procedures’ and local regulations, Nova Tech correctly carries out the standard handling procedures and notifies the local authorities within the controlled timeframe, and regularly reviews the human casualties and property losses caused by environmental protection, safety and health incidents, and conducts investigations and analyses in order to implement and improve the preventive measures to avoid recurrence. Nova Tech has established a reporting system for occupational accidents and incidents in accordance with the statutory requirements for reporting at all levels.
At Nova Tech, we have implemented an occupational safety culture. In the general safety and health education and training courses for new employees, the Occupational Safety and Health Department will promote and test the information on the degree of injuries, classification and types of accidents, so that new employees can always pay attention to their own safety, understand the company’s notification system, and work together to prevent the occurrence of accidents.
Contractor Safety and Health Management
Contractors are important partners of Nova Tech.Strengthening occupational safety and health in the workplace is an important part of Nova Tech’s management of contractors. In 2023, Nova Tech’s contractors have carried out 25,495 work visits to customers’ sites, equivalent to 203,960 man-hours. Nova Tech attaches great importance to implementing and strengthening the safety awareness of contractors.
To protect the safety of our contractors, we have formulated a ‘Safety Disciplinary Commitment’through experts with professional knowledge in occupational safety and health, which stipulates that if a contractor reports occupational hazards and dangerous conditions, or leaves a dangerous site on his own in a dangerous situation, he will not be subject to any penalties. In addition, we have set up the ‘Management Procedure of Contractor Safety Inspection and Evaluation’. Through this procedure, our project safety personnel require contractors to comply with the law and the client’s factory regulations, and inspect and check the safety protection of contractors from time to time, and ask for immediate improvement when deficiencies are found, so as to effectively ensure the safety of contractors’ workers and reduce the number of defects in the audits. In 2023, a total of 26 workplace safety failures and 3 fines were noted. There were no occupational safety incidents involving contractors’ personnel working on this Company’s projects.
Achievement of Occupational Safety and Health Management Policy
(Unit: No. of Cases)
With regard to workplace safety deficiencies, under the concept of self-management, the company analyses and tallies the deficiencies found by workplace safety personnel in the field over the past three years. The deficiencies can be classified into safety and discipline categories. When defects are found, the occupational safety officers will request improvement on the spot or set a deadline for improvement, and the case will be closed until the improvement is confirmed. In 2023, occupational safety personnel found fewer deficiencies in the field because there were fewer new plants in 2023.If the defects can be improved immediately, the staff has asked the responsible units to do so, and they will only record the defects in the industrial safety inspection instead of creating a defect sheet. According to the statistics, in 2023, there were 168 self-management records of industrial safety in each plant.
Classification of Occupational Safety Deficiencies
Contractor Failures and Related Improvement Measures
Nova Tech has established a comprehensive evaluation and auditing mechanism to record the deficiencies in occupational safety and security management and to assess their severity and impact. Based on the assessment results, Nova Tech will prioritise the most significant deficiencies and formulate specific improvement measures to continuously improve occupational safety management in order to reduce potential occupational safety risks and protect the interests of employees and the company as a whole. The following are the specific improvement measures for the most significant deficiencies in 2023.
Safety Controls for High-risk Operations
The Company is engaged in the construction of water, gas, and chemical related supply equipment pipelines. During the construction period, the Company will encounter many high-risk operations due to the environment or equipment. In order to prevent risks, Nova Tech has set up a ‘Work Health and Safety Policy’, and conducted hazard identification to identify high-risk categories and set up corresponding control measures by level. In order to enable site managers, supervisors and occupational safety personnel to implement a monitoring mechanism for high-risk operations, the Ministry of Industry and Safety will add a new action plan for high-risk operations in fiscal year 2024 to continuously improve the management of high-risk operations and prevent major negative impacts on occupational safety and health.
Work Health and Safety Policy
Before carrying out high-risk operations, the person in charge of the site and the worker safety personnel must complete a safety inspection. Work safety personnel should be present at the site to supervise the whole process. When safety hazards are detected, they should immediately request to stop the work to improve the situation. If the safety personnel are not present on site, the work shall be prohibited. At the same time, the company conducts regular internal audits to ensure compliance with the SOPs. The Company’s high-risk operations are as follows:
Health Examinations and Health Promotion Activities
We attach great importance to the health condition of our employees and are committed to creating a safe and healthy workplace. In order to remind our employees to pay attention to their own health status, Nova Tech has set up the ‘Management Procedures for Labour Health Protection and Occupational Disease Prevention’, and regularly conducts health checkups at least once a year in order to safeguard the health of our employees. From 2020, Nova Tech has implemented clinic rounds by clinicians and nurse practitioners, and continues to actively protect the health of its employees through e-health emails and health promotion seminars.
As a result, we were awarded the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Healthy Workplace Health Promotion Label in 2020 and applied for renewal of the label in 2023. In addition, we were designated as a Healthy Corporate Citizen by Common Health Magazine in 2023, publicly pledging to continue to promote the implementation of healthcare clinical services to promote the physical and mental health of our employees.
In order to express Nova Tech’s importance and concern for employee health, the amount of subsidy for employee health checkups ranges from NT$2,000 to NT$8,000 per person
(NT$2,000 for general employees, NT$5,000 for section chiefs and employees with more than 10 years of experience, and NT$8,000 for employees at managerial level or above), encouraging employees to actively undergo health checkups in order to improve the overall level of health of the employees.
2023 Health Check Attendance Rate
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Nova Tech has an active Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to ensure that our employees are cared for and assisted in their work environment and have a channel to express their views, solve problems and deal with possible labour disputes or risks.
The Company has developed a series of physical and mental health programmes, including mental health programmes, stress management programmes and emotion management
programmes. In 2023, the company invested NT$48,000 in physical and mental health programmes to help 78 employees improve their health habits to prevent health conditions. At the same time, Nova Tech also provides professional counselling services, including psychological counselling, health counselling and workplace stress counselling. Staff can meet with a counsellor for face-to-face counselling in a confidential and supportive environment to explore difficulties and challenges they may be experiencing in their personal and professional lives and to receive professional advice and support.
In 2023, Nova Tech provided consulting services, including two hours of physician services quarterly and two hours of nurse practitioner/physical therapist services four times per month. The company invested NT$138,000 to provide 104 hours of consulting services to 84 employees and contractors.
Health Promotion Seminars in 2023
Healthy Step Challenge: Encouraging Walking for Health
In 2023, Nova Tech launched a new Healthy Pedometer Challenge to motivate employees to develop regular exercise habits. Each employee was equipped with a smart watch to record their regular walking steps, with a total purchase cost of NT$194,250 for the smart watches. In addition, when the staff achieves the set walking target, they will have the chance to participate in a lucky draw and win fabulous prizes.
This program aims to encourage Nova Tech employees to develop a good habit of regular exercise and implement it in their daily life, therefore, it is recommended to use the simplest and easiest way of ‘Walking’. Nova Tech advocates walking more, using stairs and elevators less, which not only helps fitness, but also environmental protection and energy saving, so that walking becomes a new health culture shared by colleagues.
A total of 143 employees signed up for the July 2023 competition. 82 of them successfully completed the challenge, with a completion rate of 57.3%, accumulating a total of 4,433 hours of walking time. The second registration was held in October 2023, with 88 participants. The number of participants who successfully completed the challenge increased to 70, with a completion rate of 79.55%.
In 2023, a total of 7,161 hours were accumulated. In recognition of these efforts, a lucky draw was held during the competition months, with 8 and 12 lucky winners each receiving a prize of $3,000. A total of NT$60,000 was invested in prizes to encourage more employees to participate in healthy living. In 2023, the Nova Tech Healthy Pedometer Challenge Contest was held with a total investment of NT$254,250.
Occupational safety and health training
Nova Tech organizes fire safety and hygiene education lectures and evacuation drills twice a year to familiarise staff with the escape and evacuation routes, emergency evacuation points, etc. and to enhance their fire safety knowledge. In order to reduce the chance of occupational disasters, Nova Tech implements strict education and training in accordance with the Rules for Occupational Safety and Health and Training. In 2023, Nova Tech’s HSE-related training hours per capita have reached 16.41 hours per person, an increase of 5.28 hours from 2022.
EHS training hours/person on average related training hours
Fire Safety Education Seminar (2023)
Occupational Injuries and Diseases
Nova Tech aims at creating an accident-free workplace. Through the efforts of all departments in the company, there were no cases of occupational diseases and no workplace accidents (excluding accidents caused by employees travelling to and from work) in 2023, regardless of employees or contractors. There was one case of injury caused by a commuting accident, and the employee was granted 3 days of leave in accordance with the law. The Occupational Safety and Health Committee has included this issue as one of the important resolutions to strengthen the promotion of commuting safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Department has also promoted this issue to all employees during the year-end review meeting to remind them to avoid similar incidents.
Nova Tech was certified by ISHA in 2023 for 2,897,445 disaster-free hours (from 23 September 2014 to 30 November 2023). As of 31 December 2023, the cumulative number of disaster-free working hours is 2,923,372, demonstrating our commitment to workplace safety.
