bold spirit - ArcelorMittal South Africa

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ArcelorMittal South Africa
Annual Report 2010
As part of the Newcastle Works pilot
project, 473 employees took part
in structured behavioural change
communication workshops, while 1 691
people underwent chronic disease
screening. Results of these tests reveal
that the Works has abnormally high
levels of obesity and that one-third of
employees have high blood pressure. In
response, we implemented a fitnesslifestyle
programme through which
over 100 employees are currently
undergoing weekly ‘boot camp’ training
on site. Their progress is monitored on
a monthly basis. Around 130 of them
have signed up to the Referral and
Adherence Management programme,
mostly for obesity, hypertension and
high cholesterol.
Of the employees who underwent
disease screening, 610 received
HIV Counselling and Testing. Some
of those who tested positive joined
other employees already participating
in the company’s HIV Positive Support
programme.
A disease profile index will help the
company establish prevalence rates for
each of these conditions, per operation.
In the past, such information was not
captured in a standardised way but
the new system will allow for this.
Once operational, it will also allow us
to quantify the financial risk of each
disease to the company.
The external service provider is currently
rolling out healthcare training and
awareness for employees and their
families, and family members are invited
to participate in health awareness days
run by the company. Training for the rest
of the group is conducted by another
service provider.
Update on strategic interventions
The following provides an update on
the strategic interventions outlined in
the previous year’s report regarding
the wellness programme.
• Implementation of a
behavioural change strategy
on total wellness: a strategy
was developed internally at
Vanderbijlpark Works to manage
behavioural change among HIVpositive
employees. This has
been incorporated into the pilot
and in the process of finalising a
behavioural change management
tool for all chronic and lifestyle
diseases.
• Implementation of common
standards, procedures and
protocols to govern wellness
initiatives across the business:
the employee wellness task team,
partnered with human resources
during the year to consolidate,
integrate, centralise and standardise
all policies and procedures for
wellness-related issues.
• Alignment of canteens,
restaurants, dressing rooms and
ablution facilities with health
and wellness standards: this is
a group-wide project, initiated
by the group’s Chairman and
CEO, Mr Lakshmi Mittal. An audit
was carried out to assess which
areas were falling short of the
required standards and work
has commenced to perform the
necessary upgrades. To date
R18.6 million has been invested in
upgrading these areas.
• Increasing accessibility for
disabled employees: an internal
audit identified the areas requiring
improvement and a single
contractor appointed to carry out
the upgrades. Of the R18.6 million
mentioned above, a substantial
amount was invested in increasing
accessibility for disabled employees.
• Promotion of sporting activities:
this has been incorporated into
a pilot and will be rolled out to
the rest of the company with the
rest of the employee wellness
programme.
• Converting medical stations to
health and wellness centres: this
is planned for roll-out over a threeyear
period.
Introduction of compulsory medical
aid
In 2009 we highlighted our intention
to investigate a compulsory medical
aid for all employees. Employees were
previously given the choice of joining any
of the three accredited medical schemes
for the company, but many elected not
to. This resulted in 2 500 employees
who have no medical cover at all,
making it impossible for the company to
properly address disease management.
Following negotiations with the
bargaining forum all new employees
are required to have compulsory
medical cover from 1 June 2010,
and all existing employees must join
a medical scheme by 2013. The
bargaining forum raised concerns
about the affordability of medical
cover for some employees and we are
currently investigating the possibility
of introducing a subsidisation model.