Safety and health
Safety
Safety is one of our core values remains our first priority. Everyone who works in Anglo American has the right to go home without harm and our role is to make this a consistent reality. Our zero harm vision is to eliminate fatal injuries in the workplace and mine injury free.
How we manage safety
Mining is a high-risk industry and our on-site employees work in challenging conditions. We have worked consistently to understand these risks, learn from previous incidents and implement risk-mitigating processes, technologies and behaviour patterns.
A robust risk-based approach underpins all our safety programmes. The 'Anglo American Safety Way' details our safety vision, principles, policy, and safety management system standards. It includes a concise set of behavioural safety golden rules and fatal risk standards.
All business units and sites have Safety Improvement Plans (SIPs) which drive continuous performance improvement and are aligned with our systematic and standardised approach to safety management.
To assess the effectiveness of management controls in place to reduce safety risks, our sustainable development risk and assurance team is conducting audits across all business units throughout 2010 on falls of ground, contractor management and electricity isolation – our key safety priorities.
Key performance data
FIFR: 0.010; a 33% improvement
LTIFR: 0.76; a 27% improvement
Safety fines: $33,920
OHSAS 18001 certification: 92%
We regret that 20* people lost their lives while working at Anglo American during 2009. While we emphasise that any loss-of-life is unacceptable, we are encouraged that this represents a 29% improvement on 2008 (28). Our fatal-injury frequency rate (FIFR) also showed a 33% improvement from 0.015 in 2008 to 0.010 in 2009.
We are achieving longer periods of injury-free operation throughout our company and a total of 92% of our sites remained fatality-free during the year.
*19 fatal injuries were reported in the 2009 Anglo American Annual Report and Anglo American Platinum Annual Report. An employee, who sustained injuries during 2009, passed away in February 2010 after the report went to print. A further fatality took place at Kumba Iron Ore during 2009, and is pending final classification.
Safety in China
Safety operations at Yang Quarry
To ensure safe operations, the quarry has introduced more advanced quarry management techniques and processes. With continuous training and coaching on the job, a strong mindset has been fostered among employees that “safety is everyone’s responsibility” and that “no task is so important that it cannot be done safely”. Yang Quarry’s safety practices have also been recommended by the Huzhou government, and the company has been identified by the Huzhou Production Safety Supervision Office as a “Grade one enterprise of safety standards passed non-coal mining enterprise” in 2006.
Health and wellbeing
Another of our core values, care and respect, forms the basis of all of our health programmes. Our vision is that no employee is harmed by working at our operations, and that the health of those who work for us is improved.
Our target and vision in occupational health is zero harm. This requires us preventing people from being exposed to occupational risks in the workplace. If an occupational illness does occur, it’s our responsibility to do whatever is necessary to learn from the experience and put in measures that will safeguard the health of our people.
Our standards
The Anglo American Occupational Health Way provides a simple set of global standards for managing occupational health risks. The key focus is on eliminating exposure at source through design of the workplace and the application of engineering solutions rather than relying solely on behavioural controls such as personal protective equipment.
Occupational health in China
Our people are our most valued asset. Our businesses in China place great emphasis on staff health. All staff members were covered by medical insurance, including migrant workers who had not previously had the benefit. All employees, at different locations and our joint ventures, attended HIV/AIDS training sessions and received first aid training.
HIV/AIDS
We continue to drive a world-leading HIV/AIDS response. During 2009, the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria recognised the performance of our thermal coal mines in South Africa with a business excellence award for the best workplace HIV/AIDS programme.
We are determined to break the cycle of new infections and to ensure that people infected with HIV are assisted in staying healthy and economically active.
Early diagnosis
The fundamental focus of our HIV/AIDS response is on everyone knowing their HIV/AIDS status – thus, our thrust continues to be on early diagnosis and access to treatment. Complementing this, at the business units and corporate offices, we have a well-established and robust system of post-testing compulsory counselling, coupled with intensive HIV-prevention campaigns. In 2009, the southern African operations exceeded the ambitious target of 80% - a significant achievement given that this was near-zero in 2002.
Treatment
A key element in successfully managing the HIV/AIDS epidemic is to ensure the timely uptake of treatment. This forms an important focus of activities in tandem with initiatives to encourage people to stay on anti-retroviral treatment (ART), and to bring their spouses or partners to participate in our HIV/AIDS programmes.
Performance
At the end of 2009, 3,211 employees, 27% of the estimated HIV-positive employee population, were receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Ultimately, all HIV-positive employees will need ART, so we anticipate, and are planning for, a steady increase in the number of employees starting treatment.
Sadly, 263 employees died from AIDS in 2009. This figure reveals the stark reality of the impact of AIDS on our workforce. In a perfect programme, all HIV infections would be diagnosed early and all patients placed on ART before they get sick. With good adherence to the prescribed medication, there should be no deaths from AIDS. This is our long-term goal.
In China, we arrange HIV/AIDS prevention training sessions every year to ensure that all staff members have the required knowledge, and they are encouraged to take free testing and counselling. Our Beijing office has been actively supporting and participating in the Global Business Coalition’s (GBC) activities and projects to address HIV/AIDS in China.
