Contractor safety management

We make no distinction between the safety of our contractors and our employees. Contractors must comply in full with our safety standards and procedures, and we include them in our safety performance data. We rely extensively on contractors to provide additional labour and for specialised skills and services, and expect our use of contractors to grow as our major projects enter the construction phase.

We manage contractor safety by:

• ensuring there is appropriate supervision and communication with site contractors for the safety risks involved in their activities
• assessing a contractor’s safety record when awarding contracts and performing contractor reviews
• monitoring high-risk activities closely, providing regular feedback on performance and acting on any failures by contractors to comply with our procedures

Where appropriate, we have reduced our contractor base to improve accountability and ensure safety standards that are consistent with our own. When a serious incident occurs, the commodity business and contractor’s chief executives become directly involved and contract termination may result.

Intermittent contractors

We differentiate between long-term contractors who are effectively part of our workforce and intermittent contractors who may spend only a few days on site every few months. Ensuring intermittent contractors understand and adhere to our safety standards and procedures is an additional challenge, and they require greater supervision.

Measures we have implemented to better manage the safety risks associated with intermittent contractors include:

• reviewing the contractor’s planned activities to identify any safety hazards and risk before work starts (and preferably before the contractor comes on site)
• ensuring the contractor is fully aware of any safety hazards and the associated safety procedures and systems to be respected
• assigning appropriate supervision for the level of risk involved in the work

Auditing contractor safety

Xstrata Copper’s Alumbrera mine in north-western Argentina has established a contractor auditing and management system that has improved contractors’ adherence to our safety practices, SD Framework and Business Principles. Local contractors have praised the programme for helping them to better understand our policies and standards and to improve their safety performance.