Responsibility of employers in disasters

May 10, 2015

Company executives' attitude and judgment can mean life or death for employees in disasters

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150510p2a00m0na002000c.html

Since over 2,400 people were killed by the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011 while at work or in transit to or from work, some employers have faced court orders to pay damages to bereaved families. All employers, meanwhile, face the great challenge of protecting the lives of their employees and customers from disasters in the future.

At 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, Kenji Saito, the executive director of confectioner Saito Seika, was at the company's head office in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, when files fell from the shelves and everything began to shake. The temblor registered a lower 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. In the spur of the moment he yelled, "Get out, there's going to be a tsunami! Turn off the power. Evacuate!"

As soon as the shaking subsided, the 35 employees who had been at the head office -- located some 100 meters from the ocean -- headed for their designated evacuation site on higher ground about 270 meters away. They arrived at the site shortly before 3 p.m., and a tsunami over 8 meters high struck some 20 minutes later. The company headquarters were completely destroyed, but no one was hurt.

From the time he was a child, Saito had been told repeatedly by his father, who had survived the tsunami that hit following the 1933 Sanriku Earthquake by climbing up an electric pole, to evacuate empty-handed if a large earthquake were to strike. There were numerous posters saying "It's an earthquake, there's going to be a tsunami, evacuate now!" on the walls of the Saito Seika office, and in evacuation drills held twice a year, members of the company followed their designated route to higher ground.

On March 9, 2011, just two days before the massive quake and tsunami hit, there had been a temblor in the city with a seismic intensity of 3, followed by a tsunami measuring 60 centimeters. On the morning of March 11, 2011, the company had just reviewed its tsunami evacuation manual, and reminded its employees to evacuate to higher ground in the case of a tsunami warning. This procedure review contributed to the smooth evacuation.

In March 2013, Saito, along with local volunteers, founded the Ofunato Tsunami Denshokan (Pass on tsunami lore to the next generation) -- a facility dedicated to passing down history and information on tsunami in the local area -- on the grounds of the company headquarters that had been rebuilt on higher ground.

The message Saito wants to convey is simple. "Whether or not employees survive depend on their leaders' judgment," Saito says. "The top executives of companies with operations in coastal areas must be able to tell their employees to evacuate even if it means abandoning the workplace."

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says that as of the end of March 2015, there have been 2,172 cases across 14 prefectures in which the families of those who were killed in the earthquake and tsunami while at work were awarded workers' compensation. According to the Fund for Local Government Employees' Accident Compensation and the National Personnel Authority, as of the end of March 2015, 297 civil servants were certified as having died while carrying out public duties. This means that at least 2,469 people died from the 2011 disasters during work.

Despite the unprecedented magnitude of the disasters, there have been cases of surviving families suing employers over the deaths of employees, resulting in companies paying vast amounts of money, either because of court rulings or settlements. What has separated employers who are found responsible for such payments from those who are not is whether they were seen to have made the effort to gather disaster-related information and to instruct evacuation based on that information.

In the case of a damages suit brought against the operator of Joban-Yamamoto driving school in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture by the family members of 25 students and one staff member there, the Sendai District Court ruled in January that the operator had allowed the shuttle to take students from the school on its regular route despite hearing tsunami warnings issued from fire trucks, and ordered the payment of more than 1.9 billion yen in total. The school, located 750 meters from the ocean, did not have a disaster manual, nor had it carried out any evacuation drills.

In a case involving employees of Shichijushichi Bank's Onagawa branch in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, who were killed by tsunami despite having evacuated to the roof of the bank some 10 meters high, the Sendai High Court on April 22 denied the bank's legal responsibility. The presiding judge added, however, "In order to prevent the loss of human life under current circumstances in which we cannot reliably predict tsunami heights, it is necessary to be prepared for unforeseen tsunami and to make the effort to evacuate people to safe places immediately after an earthquake."

Some companies, meanwhile, have taken the lessons learned from the 2011 disasters to implement clear measures that put lives first.

At Yakuodo Co., which is based in the Iwate Prefecture town of Yahaba and operates drugstores in five Tohoku region prefectures, nine employees were killed from the disasters on March 11, 2011. Subsequently, the company installed satellite cell phones at its eight coastal drugstores to allow communication with employees in the case of an emergency. Each of its stores is required to come up with emergency action checklists, which must be reported to headquarters on the 11th of every month.

In November 2011, the convenience store chain Circle K Sunkus Co., headquartered in Tokyo, installed an alarm system that it says "will help protect both employees and customers." Whenever a tsunami warning or mudslide warning is issued, it is transmitted to the cash register terminal aurally and visually.

In order to minimize losses in times of disaster, business continuity planning (BCP) -- a practice that clarifies the methods through which damage surveys will be carried out, as well as how resources, equipment, and production means will be secured after a disaster that began in the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- have gained momentum in Japan since the 2011 disasters.

According to a survey of around 5,000 companies nationwide carried out by the Cabinet Office in January 2014, of the 2,196 companies that responded, 53 percent of major companies said they had finished compiling BCPs, as opposed to 27 percent in fiscal 2009; while 25 percent of mid-sized companies said the same, as opposed to 12 percent in fiscal 2009.

Furthermore, an increasing number of corporations have begun to incorporate safety measures into their BCPs. At one production hub in Iwate Prefecture, the guidelines for handling major disasters is condensed into one sheet of paper, which is distributed to all workers; they clearly stipulate that workers "save their lives before equipment and facilities." Meanwhile, a waste disposal operator in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, established its first BCP in 2012, which instructs workers who encounter a disaster at a client's office to evacuate, even if the client says that it's safe, if the conditions do not meet the company's own conditions for safety.

"It's the small to mid-sized companies that face huge management risks when they lose personnel," says Osamu Yamaguchi, a senior consultant at InterRisk Research Institute & Consulting, Inc., "so it's important to delineate the respective roles people should play in the initial stages after a disaster, and to conduct numerous drills."

A mid-sized seafood processing company in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, lost 90 percent of its assets, including a factory, in the 2011 disasters. It has resumed its operations further inland, however, and credits the fact that all its employees survived as the reason it was able to bounce back. The company's president says, "Even if you've lost property, as long as you have your people, you can stay positive."

May 10, 2015(Mainichi Japan)