iST established the ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System and obtained ISO 45001 third-party independent agency verification in 2019. which provides employees with a safe and reliable workplace and reduces the possibility of employee accidents and illnesses. Through the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, continuous improvement is pursued. Regular reviews of performance indicators are conducted in the Company’s Occupational Safety and Health Committees and Environmental, Health and Safety Management Review Meetings, hoping that all units can work together to improve and promote safety, environmental protection and hygiene issues by working hard together.

iST passed the audit and verification of the ISO 45001 occupational safety and health management system on November 11, 2019, providing a safe working environment for the company's employees. 

To provide our employees with a high-quality work environment, iST is dedicated to promoting occupational safety risk management. We offer appropriate protection and operational controls to reduce health and safety risks, implementing the following management measures:

• Establishment of comprehensive access control throughout the premises
• Deployment of 24-hour security personnel with regular site patrols
• Personnel access control through card scanning
• Emergency alarms set up in high-risk areas
• CCTV surveillance systems at all entry and exit points

iST adheres to national regulations by appointing qualified occupational health and safety management personnel who possess the required certifications. These individuals undergo regular retraining to ensure the effective execution of occupational safety skills.

Relevant certifications and the number of personnel within the company

iST regularly provides its employees with occupational safety and health training, including general labor safety and health education, hazard awareness training, fire safety training, and drills.

Achievements of safety and health education training in the company

• Established guidelines for the use of protective equipment, ensuring that operational personnel are equipped with adequate protective gear.
• Formulated emergency response procedures, conducting drills every six months.
• Created an automatic safety and health inspection plan to regularly assess facility equipment within the premises.
• Developed guidelines for special hazardous operations such as hot work, elevated work, hoisting, and confined space operations. Engaging in such activities requires adherence to specified procedures.
• Conduct semiannually environmental monitoring of chemical and physical factors within the facility’s workspace. 
• Perform annual inspections of fire equipment and report to relevant supervisory authorities.

In order to identify the hazards associated with the Company’s activities, products, and services, iST has established the “Hazard Identification and Procedures for Risk Assessment Identification” to evaluate the impact of hazard identification and risk assessment on work safety, which serve as the basis for improving the environmental health and safety management system. Hazard identification and risk assessment operations are conducted by each unit. If the result is acceptable risk, it will be controlled by publicizing/labeling/safety and health education and training. If the result is unacceptable risk, the improvement or control measures will be carried out first.

iST conducts workplace environment monitoring at the frequency specified in the “Workplace Environmental Monitoring Regulations.” We use sampling strategies effectively to understand different exposure status of the workers and ensure protecting them from any exposure hazardous. 63 chemical factors and 182 physical factors were monitored in 2023 and the results were compliant with the slimites or allowable concentration standards required by law.

iST complies with the Occupational Safety and Health Act by issuing orders to halt work immediately and withdraw laborers to a safe location when there is a concern of a potential imminent danger at a workplace. When laborers discover there is a concern of a threat of imminent danger while executing their duties, under conditions in which the safety of other workers is not jeopardized, they may terminate work of their own accord and withdraw to safe locations, and immediately report to their direct supervisors. The employers shall not dismiss, reassign, not pay wages for the period of work on halt, or otherwise impose unfavorably treatment on laborers taking actions prescribed in the preceding paragraph.

In order to prevent occupational accidents from occurring, iST has formulated a “Safety incident handling and investigation procedure” to investigate and confirm the causes of the incidents, propose countermeasures and preventive methods for reviewing the accidents, and follow up and confirm the improvement and implementation to prevent similar accidents from occurring again.

We have established an EHS “Emergency Response Procedure” to control accidents. Drills are conducted on a regular basis to become familiar with the response steps. This is helpful to minimize the spread of an accident when it occurs and reduce the damage to the personnel and equipment. In 2023, iST organized five emergency drills, including day and night self-guard fire protection group training and evacuation drill/chemical leakage disposal drill/environmental emergency response drill.

iST has established the Occupational Safety and Health Committee in accordance with the law. The committee consists of one chairman, fourteen management representatives, and thirteen labor representatives pursuant to the provisions of the Regulations on Occupational Safety and Health, which accounts for more than one-third of the total members of the Committee. The purpose of the committee is to promote work safety, to prevent occurrence of accidents, to improve the work environment, to protect the health of the employees and to provide a communication channel with employees. The Committee holds a meeting every quarter and follows up the implementation of the resolutions until they are implemented completely.

iST considers contractors as important partners. In order to ensure the safety of contractors, in addition to implementing hazard notification and supervision as required by occupational safety and health related laws and regulations, contractors must sign a safety, health, and environmental protection agreement before entering the plant. Only after the construction workers have been given a safety lecture in the plant and have handed in the insurance and other relevant information and have obtained a certificate of industrial safety lecture, may proceed to work. In case of hot work, confined space, crane operations or other special operations, contractor must apply for permission in accordance with the regulations for special operations, and supervisors and occupational safety personnel must confirm the application. The contractor had no occupational accidents and occupational disease in 2023.

iST has established infirmaries to deal with health-remated management matters. Full-time nurses are hired according to law and physicans of general and occupational medicines provide on-site medical services on a regular basis. They care for the physical and metnal health of the employees and organize health promotion events in a way of interview and on-site visit to improve the awareness of health among the employees. Case management of special or serious diseases as well as occupational injuries and illnesses are established for continuous care and follow-ups.

We arrange “labor health checkup” and “special health checkup” every year. All employees are entitled to a health checkup once every two years, which is better than what the law requires. To ensure more complete checkup services, all the employees are checked at the hospital and the services cover the items more than the statutory coverage. After the checkups, we hold briefing sessions, analyze the collected data, and filter out high-risk groups according to their conditions. We use telephone interviews and face-to-face consultations to track their health and provide them with health counseling. We provide customized health education and follow-up, for example, encouraging regular monitoring of blood pressure, reminding our employees to be aware of their own health, in order to raise their health awareness and achieve the goal of “early detection for preventing diseases from occurring.”

As for the annual health checkup, we provide special health checkups for the employees who are engaged in particularly dangerous operations. A doctor is arranged to provide on-site services and interviews for the employees who are classified into Level-II Management. For the employees who are classified into Level-III Management, we assist in the re-checkup at the hospital, arrange medical consultation, give care, provide health education, and recommend appropriate adjustment of the jobs. There were no occupational disease cases occurring in 2023.

iST places much importance on the physical and mental health of the employees. The departments in charge of industrial safety and environmental protection follow the “Workplace Violence Prevention Instructions” and comprehensively assess the OHS impacts of different social aspects such as physical and mental disorder at the workplace, verbal abuse, sexual discrimination, and sex harassment, hoping to take countermeasures as early as possible to protect the rights of the employees.

We act in compliance with personal data protection regulations. In consideration that the checkup data of the employees are personal, the Company implements retention, processing and application of relevant data in accordance with the Regulations of the Labor Health Protection, and does not use them for specific purposes without the written consent of the labor.

iST has emphasized the protection of maternal health, and has conducted hazard assessment and control, physician consultation, risk classification management, work suitability arrangement, and other related measures for female laborers who are pregnant or still within their first postpartum year.

For the employees who are arranged for maternity health protection, the factory physician performs health risk grading and classifies risks into three levels according to the severity of their hazards. Hazard control and administration will be implemented for Level-II and Level-III Management, and the factory nurse and physician will conduct interview and keep tracking. Suitability assessment of maternity health protection was conducted for 15 employees in 2023.

To manage ergonomic hazards and abnormal workloads for employees, iST has established relevant prevention instructions and understood the hazards brought about by workloads, working postures, repeative jobs by conducting questionnaire surveys.For the ergonomic hazards, musculoskeletal injuries, and abnormal workload hazards that are related to work as identified during the investigation, the factory nurse and the physician of occupational medicine are requested to give assistance in carrying out an advanced improvement plan until the case concerned is closed. In 2023, a total of 463 employees were subjected to the survey of high-risk groups for prevention of ergonomic hazards and the survey of the groups suffering from ailments induced by abnormal workloads.