Occupational and Community Health
Zero Harm and the value of our people are central to the success of our business. Effective management of the health of our people is therefore essential to not only reduce the potential impact of work on the individual but also to improve quality of life through both work-based and community health programs. This means we must promote an environment that contributes to our employees being both fit for work and fit for life.
Our work with the communities in which we operate is focused on establishing programs that address health issues of significance to the community, as they may also impact our workforce and their dependants.
In addition, in considerating our role in addressing community health issues of global significance, we have embarked on programs that extend beyond the communities in which we operate; and we are among the leaders in fostering new partnerships in this area.
Our challenge is therefore to ensure that our health programs are continually evolving in order to maintain our journey towards Zero Harm, recognising and influencing those factors that impact upon our employees, their families and our communities.
Refer to the following for:
- details on Our Approach to this challenge
- an understanding of Our Drivers.
Our Approach
In general we seek to apply a holistic approach to the management of health, targeting health impacts at work, at home and in the broader community. For further detail on our approach and performance see our Health section.
Employee Exposure
Throughout the Company we continue to develop and refine standardised procedures for managing occupational exposure levels and for measuring and reporting exposure. We have increased the networking capability of our professionals in these areas by formalising global networks and increasing communication and knowledge transfer.
We have targets to reduce exposure and occupational illness so we can concentrate our attention on key areas to reduce the potential for long-term harm to the workforce.
Through focused initiatives we develop and apply best practice exposure reduction measures. For example, the Diesel Particulate Initiative has been highly successful in our underground mines. The guideline manual developed for this intitiative was keenly sought by other companies and regulatory authorities to assist them in addressing this issue. For more information, refer to our case study Illawarra Coal develops program to manage employee exposure to diesel exhaust.
Fit for Work/Fit for Life
The Company-wide Fit for Work/Fit for Life guidelines have been developed for managing issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, fatigue management, occupational rehabilitation, health promotion, job and task analysis and stress management and have been distributed throughout the Company. These guidelines are supported by a strong global network of health professionals to integrate the processes throughout the organisation.
Community Health
Health continues to be central to our community programs. Many of our operations are in regions where the three most significant global infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis) have significant impact. We continue to support major programs on malaria to reduce the burden of this disease in Africa and assist in research to find new malaria drugs. Refer to our Health case study on our long-running health program at Cerrejón for an example of this approach.
Global Involvement
We continue to look for opportunities to support activities that offer health benefits that extend beyond the communities in which we operate. In respect of HIV/AIDS we have channeled this into the search for more effective treatment for the disease. We are providing funding to support the formation of a consortium to progress the development of a promising immune therapy treatment given as a vaccine. This treament has the potential to revolutionise the ability for southern Africa to cope with the numbers of people needing simple, effective, deliverable treatment for the disease.
Our Drivers
The effective management of the health of our employees, contractors and communities is integral to ensuring:
- we maintain operational performance and efficiency by having a workforce that is able to work productively
- we continue to attract and retain a workforce by establishing a reputation for a healthy workplace where the broader health needs of employees are also considered
- we continue to gain access to resources through improving our capacity to work in areas where there are health risks and demonstrating that this capacity contributes more broadly to the improved health of the communities where we operate.
