Health and safety

The safety of our workforce gets top priority during daily operations at Glencore.

People are our most important asset and we are committed to ensuring every person returns home safely at the end of their work day.

We seek to be an industry leader in safety, and to create a workplace without fatalities, injuries or occupational diseases.

Our approach to safety

Mining inherently involves hazards and risks, and our goal is to:

• apply sound risk management principles
• provide a fatality-free workplace
• continue to reduce serious injuries.

At Glencore Coal we have developed a Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) Framework which provides structure and consistency across the organisation.  The framework is supported by a suite of HSEC Standards which establish direction and set expectations.

SafeCoal

SafeCoal is a safety initiative established for Glencore coal operations in New South Wales and Queensland more than 10 years ago.

The program provides a framework for management systems and behaviours that contribute to our goal of producing coal with no fatalities or injuries to people working in and around our operations.  

We apply principles that assist us in managing identified hazards and risk-related behaviours.

The key components of SafeCoal are:

• establishing clear behavioural expectations for everyone in the form of SafeCoal Rules
• addressing the most common causes of fatalities and serious injuries by providing minimum requirements for managing these hazards through our suite of Fatal Hazard Protocols
• encouraging our people to 'make the safe choice' by empowering them
• establishing transparent and consistent consequences for breaches of SafeCoal related systems using our Safety Compliance Protocol.

The SafeCoal framework has now been adopted – as SafeWork – across all Glencore assets around the world.

Employee health and wellbeing

Our health strategy has established the following key pillar areas:

• Fit for Work
• Controlled Work Environment
• Fit for Life.

We encourage the health, fitness and general wellbeing of our people, and provide education, counselling, prevention and treatment programs that focus on the key pillar areas. 

A medical surveillance program is also in place across all operations.

Mates in Mining

Glencore Coal supports Mates in Mining, an evidence-based suicide awareness and prevention program for the mining industry.

The program leverages industry participation and support to embed suicide prevention and mental health awareness into the industry culture.

Mates in Mining delivers an integrated program of workforce capacity building and support, using training as a tool to raise awareness about suicide and mental health.

Mates in Mining works from the fundamental principle that increasing the capacity of individuals and communities to recognise suicidal behaviour, and prevent and respond to suicide, is essential to reducing the rate of suicide.