Labour practice

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Internationally, the mining industry has not been an obvious career choice or preferred place of employment for women. In South Africa women were, until the 1990s, legislatively prohibited or otherwise constrained from being employed in operations underground. Mining as a discipline was not seen or marketed as a good career choice for professional women and, at the lower levels, the industry has traditionally drawn its labour from a largely male, rural workforce. Practically, working underground has been difficult for women with no or insufficient facilities dedicated to them.

As a company, AngloGold Ashanti is committed to providing development opportunities to all of its employees and to ensuring that the demographics of the organisation resemble the demographics of the regions and countries in which it operates, which would obviously include women. Supporting this philosophy is the company’s committment to ensuring that no grouping, including women, is discriminated against.

Further impetus to AngloGold Ashanti’s need to encourage the development of women in the company is provided by South African minerals legislation which not only prohibits the exclusion of women, but requires companies to actively change the demographic profile of the company and to ensure that they have plans in place to achieve a target of 10% participation of women by 2009. Given that 94% of AngloGold Ashanti’s South African employees in 2005 were men, this is likely to be a challenging target to achieve.

While the South Africa region has put in place a range of programmes to address the recruitment and advancement of women at both a corporate and operational level, there is clearly a need to try and understand some of the barriers to the employment of women in the industry and to develop a strategy that deals with this. With this in mind, the company commissioned an external consultant to undertake an audit to establish:

• what currently deters women from entering the mining industry; and
• what the company can do to overcome this.

Specifically, the outcome of the research was intended to assist in:

• developing actions to eliminate the risks and barriers to the employment of women at all occupational levels;
• setting up monitoring structures and responsibilities to ensure that the prescribed targets are set and met;
• developing ways in which to build an organisational environment that is supportive of the role of women;
• overcoming the specific barriers to achieving the numerical targets set and ensuring the retention of newly appointed candidates; and
• identifying significant findings at specific business units and those that are common to the region as a whole that can be used to support the strategy.

Three principal methods were adopted in undertaking the audit which was conducted in September/October 2005.

• First, a Women in Mining task team was formed comprising women nominated from the various business units as well as three representatives from each of the following recognised unions: National Union of Mineworkers (NUM); United Association of South Africa (UASA); and South African Equity Workers Association (SAEWA). This task team provided much guidance on the research and conducted site visits.
• Interviews, largely in focus groups, were conducted with a cross-section of women and men employed within the different business units. The aim was to gather qualitative data on individuals’ specific workplace experiences and how these experiences influenced the critical decision-making processes used in career planning and lifestyle choices. In all, 350 interviews were conducted.
• A ‘Women in Mining’ questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain the responses of a wider group and to add further quantifiable context to the qualitative data gathered in the interviews.

The primary issues identified during the audit were as follows:

• Women joining the mining industry often do not have sufficient knowledge of the industry or their workplaces and are frequently placed in inappropriate positions, thus setting them up for failure. Men in the industry have a resistance to women being ‘pushed’ into workplaces, and do not see or hear of many ‘successes’, but rather focus on the ‘failures’.
• Physical constraints and health and safety are very real and perceived issues. This applies particularly to pregnancy and physical capacity where insufficient education is provided in respect of both women and their male team members. Specifically in terms of physical work capacity, insufficient care is taken in recruiting physically fit women, and in placing women in appropriate jobs. (See Report to Society 2004 for details on the physical work capacity testing.)
• The presence of discrimination was cited, as was the belief that commitment to equal employment opportunities was simply rhetorical. Some men said they feared accusations of harassment.
• The need for role models and mentors, and a lack of knowledge about career development opportunities were cited. Also, mentioned a few times was the belief that there were certain positions reserved for white females and others for black females.
• Concerns about the inequity of employee grading systems were raised as well as the perceived exclusion from the so-called ‘old boys’ network.
• Site infrastructure (such as a nursing facility or crèches), change houses, medical facilities and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) were also matters of concern.

The recommendations made as a result of the survey and which are now being implemented by the company are listed below. Many of these recommendations were already in place and this research has simply supported them:

• demonstrate senior management support for diversity initiatives;
• provide diversity training;
• institute targeted recruitment programmes;
• identify and track high-potential female employees;
• establish women’s networking groups;
• provide high-potential women with coaches and mentors;
• provide women with line experience and cross-training;
• increase women’s visibility by assigning to them business critical roles;
• emphasise women in succession planning processes;
• assist all employees in balancing work and personal responsibility;
• hold management accountable for diversity progress; and
• create a comprehensive sustainable diversity strategy – not a quick fix.

Despite the significant challenges faced, particularly in overcoming the cultural and perceptual barriers to women in mining, AngloGold Ashanti has developed plans and targets to meet the requirements within the requisite time frame. Of greater concern to the company, though, is the need to effect a permanent change, and to create a sustainable model that will both encourage and retain women as employees and managers of the company.