Another of our core values, care and respect, forms the basis of
all of the Group’s 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.
A nurse attends to a patient at an Anglo American health centreOur health strategy
Occupational health management forms the foundation of our health strategy. It comprises two separate disciplines – occupational hygiene and occupational medicine.
Occupational hygiene refers to the process of anticipating, recognising, evaluating and controlling health hazards in the working environment, while occupational medicine is the branch of clinical medicine concerned with employee fitness for work, medical surveillance of employees, medical emergency management, and death and disability management.
The knowledge and experience we have gained through our workplace health programmes are used to support health initiatives in our community outreach programmes, as well as informing our investments and activities aimed at promoting healthcare in developing countries more broadly
Our standards
The Occupational Health Way provides a simple set of global standards for managing occupational health risks. It is underpinned by three guiding principles: that all occupational illnesses are preventable; that we will learn by monitoring exposure and surveillance of disease incidence in order to prevent further harm; and that we apply common, simple and non-negotiable standards throughout the Group.
An essential element of the Occupational Health Way is our second-party assurance process, which is undertaken by the safety and sustainable development (S&SD) risk and assurance team. During 2010, we conducted noise and dust audits to assess the nature and scale of risks, the quality of existing controls, and the levels of compliance with our technical standards. Specific audit reports were provided to each site during 2011 and action plans are being implemented to address the issues. The S&SD risk and assurance team will undertake a series of follow-up audits to evaluate progress in 2013.