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GOLD FIELDS LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT 2006
Gold Fields Australian operations seek to do so without
taking a moral stance on the issue. Instead the concern is for
the employee’s fitness for work without prejudging what
employees do in their personal time. Traditionally, this was
managed by conducting random urine tests on each
employee at least three times per year by selecting an entire
crew for testing at the start of the shift. However, we
witnessed a gradual move from recreational drugs with long
residence times in the human body to more dangerous ones
with shorter residence times. In response, we began
evaluating Eyecheck equipment, which tests for employee
fitness to work on the basis of pupil response. This
technology is also better at differentiating between drug
effects and simple fatigue and is currently being considered
for wholesale adoption as it could reduce the need for large
numbers of urine tests. Irrespective of the methodology
eventually adopted, we retain our policy of “three strikes and
you are out.”
Other challenges more specific to the first-world context of the
Australian operations relate to alcohol abuse and heat stress.
The former is managed through the above-mentioned fit-for-
work programme, while the latter has been managed through
the adoption of specific procedures applicable to employees and
contractors alike. These include the issuing of hats, sunscreen,
four-litre water bottles, PPE, and requiring that long trousers
be worn at work. Although many workers wear short trousers
and short sleeve shirts in the hot conditions, Gold Fields
decided, after some consideration, that for both safety and heat
stress avoidance reasons, long trousers and eventually long
sleeves make sense. To compensate employees for the
perceived inconvenience, pay for employees and exploration
contractors is made up if, for example, exploration rigs are shut
down due to dangerous heat conditions, as occurred earlier in
early F2006. While the issues require active management, we
are happy to report that no workplace incidents so far can be
linked specifically to them.
As part of activities to improve the health of communities that
fall within its operational area, Gold Fields Ghana has put in
place strategies to address health issues confronting the
people of these communities.
“One strategy has been to train schoolteachers and pupils
as Agents of Change to institute reproductive health
programmes in schools that disseminate information on
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health, and encourage
sexual responsibility through abstinence clubs. The company
has also instituted a weekly radio broadcast to the local
community in which it educates and engages with the
community on health issues like malaria, diarrhoea, childhood
illnesses, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids. Consequently, “Bo
Woho Ban” (Protect Yourself) has become a household name
in the Western Region. Nana Peprah, a local chief, had this to
say: “My people listen to the radio programme and women
have to carry their small radio sets to the farm because of the
importance they attach to the programme.”
Gold Fields Ghana, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health,
has trained 16 community health facilitators and equipped
them with bicycles to visit villages where they provide first aid
services, disseminate information on health issues, sell basic
pharmaceuticals, and refer patients to healthcare facilities
when necessary.
Both mines continue to organise educational programmes at
the Mine Training Centre, the out-patient department of the
local hospitals, and at our own clinics. HIV/Aids has also been
included as a separate module for all induction and refresher
courses on the mine.
Managing Drugs at the Workplace in Australia
For a variety of reasons, HIV/Aids has so far been far more
effectively contained in Australia than in African regions in
which we operate. By contrast, recreational drug use is a
challenge which many Australian employers need to manage.