When a company opens a new business office, setting up of necessary systems and structures, including a safety and health committee, is required depending on the size or the type of business. The Labor Standards Act and the Industrial Safety and Health Act treat a workplace as an independent business site in various circumstances. If a workplace is located separately from a company’s head office, it is considered as an independent business site.
Even if a workplace is in a separate location, however, it may be considered as a part of the headquarters, depending on its size or management capacity. For instance, if two sales people and one administrative staffer work in a separate office by receiving directions from the company’s sales department, with the staff’s attendance management done at the headquarters, it is considered as a part of the supervising office, i.e. the headquarters. If the number of workers increases and the office starts to handle the staff’s labor management, the office will become required to set up its own safety and health management structure.
The criteria for the establishment of safety and health management structure are also different according to the type of business. In the case of a manufacturing company with a sales office and a factory, the sales office’s type of business will be “other business.” If the number of staff at the sales office is 10 or more and less than 50, it needs to appoint a “safety and health advocate,” and if the staff number becomes 50 or more, appointment of a “health manager” will be required.
[Reference]
The Labor Ministry, “General safety and health managers, safety managers, health managers, and industrial physicians”
https://jsite.mhlw.go.jp/tokyo-roudoukyoku/hourei_seido_tetsuzuki/anzen_eisei/a-kanri.html
“How to count the number of ‘regularly employed workers’ for determining the size of business office”
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_09985.html
*The content is based on laws and regulations as of the date of the original article.
