Case study: How Alacer promotes employee health and safety
Alacer is a leading Canadian low-cost intermediate gold producer whose primary focus is to leverage its cornerstone Çöpler Gold Mine and strong balance sheet as foundations to continue its organic multi-mine growth strategy. The health and safety of its workforce and communities is, and always will be, Alacer’s top priority. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2019 Sustainability Report by Alacer published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Alacer’s Health and Safety Policy is guided by two key goals: first, to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries from its operations and, second, to continually reduce the number of minor injuries occurring on site. In order to promote employee health and safety Alacer took action to:
- conduct risk assessments
- promote employee engagement
- ensure emergency preparedness
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Alacer has identified;
- How Alacer proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Alacer to promote employee health and safety
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2019 Sustainability Report Alacer identified a range of material issues, such as local and national employment, doing business in an ethical manner, environmental compliance, employee training and development. Among these, promoting employee health and safety stands out as a key material issue for Alacer.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Alacer engages with:
Stakeholder Group |
Shareholders |
Analysts |
Local communities |
Authorities |
Contractors |
Government representatives |
Trade union officials |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Alacer surveyed a sample of internal and external stakeholders.
What actions were taken by Alacer to promote employee health and safety?
In its 2019 Sustainability Report Alacer reports that it took the following actions for promoting employee health and safety:
- Conducting risk assessments
- The Çöpler Mine has a safety management plan and system in place aligned with international best practice standard ISO45001 and Alacer regularly assesses specific safety risks across each part of the Mine. In 2019, Alacer continued the development of its existing risk management programme applying leading practice guidance to its risk management and control methodology to ensure best outcomes. Alacer improved its systems and support to provide better on-the-job tools, recording and reporting information.
- Promoting employee engagement
- Alacer encourages its staff to think proactively about safety risks and to take responsibility for both the safety of themselves and their colleagues. Alacer also encourages a right to refuse work on the grounds of safety. That means all its workers are empowered to challenge their supervisors if they believe the appropriate safety measures or equipment are not in place. Alacer holds daily prestart and toolbox meetings which include safety briefings to reinforce risk awareness and the importance of safe working procedures. Safety training is, also, a critical part of the induction training for all employees and contractors, and regular additional job-specific safety training is provided – including use of chemicals, spills, working at height and hot work.
- Ensuring emergency preparedness
- Ensuring it is adequately prepared for an emergency is a key part of Alacer’s commitment to providing a safe working environment. The Çöpler Mine has a well-trained and equipped on site emergency response team in place. This includes three dedicated personnel and 86 trained workers. A minimum of 20 trained emergency response workers are on site at any one time. This means first response cover and assistance is available anywhere on site at any time. Alacer carries out mock drills throughout the year to make sure all workers know what to do in the event of an emergency, aiming for a three-minute emergency response time. During 2019, the Çöpler Mine signed a protocol with the Sub-governor of İliç to assist the District in dealing with emergencies such as traffic incidents and fires.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:
1) Disclosure 403-9 Work-related injuries
2) Disclosure 403-10 Work-related ill health
Disclosure 403-9 Work-related injuries corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
- Targets: 3.6, 3.9
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.8
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Targets: 16.1
Disclosure 403-10 Work-related ill health does not correspond to any SDG.
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by Alacer, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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