We engage with our employees through:

    Various internal engagement efforts and communications
    Everyday interactions with frontline managers
    Interactions with labor representatives
    Training
    Surveys
    Virtual townhalls
    Formal internal grievance mechanisms

For more information on our ongoing employee engagement, please refer to the Workforce section of our website.

Our Social Performance Management System documents and institutionalizes how we interact with our communities across our portfolio. Each operating mine site maintains a Social Performance plan, updated annually, which provides a strategic framework for risk management, engagement and development assistance to the communities and neighboring stakeholders near our operations. Our community engagement takes place in a number of different formats depending upon the cultural context. Traditionally, we engage with our host communities in person through Community Partnership Panels in the United States, Community Roundtables in South America and community development and empowerment teams in Indonesia. All three models focus on proactive, transparent communications and dialogue and are comprised of local leaders and citizens representing a broad range of stakeholder groups in each community. Each of our operations also engages with stakeholders frequently through situation or topic-specific meetings, presentations or community outreach office hours. With the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, our community engagement teams quickly pivoted to virtual or socially distanced formats.

Issues raised by community stakeholders help inform each operation’s Risk Register and assist in developing both engagement and social investment strategies. Hundreds of individuals and entities are engaged annually through:

   Community Development staff
   Community foundations
   Workshops
   Participatory group panels
   Town hall meetings
   Surveys
   Site-level community grievance mechanisms

External engagement also occurs through regulatory consultation processes with local governments and community groups, including Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable groups.

For more information on our ongoing external stakeholder engagement, including examples of stakeholder input and how we have taken such input into account, please visit the Communities and Indigenous Peoples sections of our website.

At the international level, we engage the financial community, civil society, downstream customers, responsible sourcing initiatives, commodity and trade associations, and international governmental agencies to discuss and receive feedback on our human rights approach. Our Annual Report on Sustainability is a key communication tool that supports our direct engagement efforts. Please see the Stakeholder Engagement section of the report and refer to our 2020 Report to the VPs Plenary for examples of how we engage on security and human rights with fellow Voluntary Principles members (government, NGO and corporate) at the initiative level.

We are always open to direct engagement with stakeholders on our human rights approach.

Communication, Training and Awareness Raising

Employees. We are guided by our PBC, which defines the expected behavior of all employees and our Board – including respect for human rights. We conduct comprehensive training on our PBC including annual certification by management-level employees and induction training for all new employees. This process requires employees to certify that they understand it and have no known instances of non-compliance. Managers and supervisors also are responsible for ensuring that the employees who report to them understand these principles. Please refer to the Values, Policies & Practices and Performance Targets sections of our website for more information.

In addition to PBC training, we promote awareness of our Human Rights Policy and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) among employees through a variety of mechanisms, including annual classroom and online training, the distribution of pamphlets and other media and periodic training. Please refer to our 2020 Report to the VPs Plenary for more information on human rights and security training for employees.

In 2020, we continued to deliver UNGPs implementation guidance to Sustainability Leaders at targeted sites. This included highlighting the linkages between the UNGPs and other ICMM Performance Expectations or Copper Mark requirements with a human rights nexus.

Suppliers and Contractors. Our Human Rights Policy includes a commitment to collaborating with value chain stakeholders on our human rights due diligence practices and outcomes to collectively avoid and address adverse impacts. We have incorporated standard language on human rights into our corporate contract templates. Suppliers receive and are expected to perform in accordance with our Supplier Code of Conduct. Our Supplier Code of Conduct, which is based on our PBC, sets forth our expectations for suppliers in areas such as safety, respect for human rights, anti-corruption, community and environment. For the purpose of the Supplier Code of Conduct, “Supplier” is defined as a business that provides goods or services to our company. A supplier may include suppliers, contractors, consultants, vendors, their subcontractors and any other contracted third parties.

On-site contractors are subject to an onboarding process that consists of a review of company policies, procedures, and security protocols, including validation of required certifications. This includes our Contractor Health and Safety Manual, which defines the minimum expectations and requirements for contractors working at our operations. As with our employees, site-specific health and safety training is conducted with contractors and tailored to task-specific hazards and critical controls. Our health and safety performance and associated reporting encompasses our direct employees as well as on-site contractors.

Some sites also provide targeted training on human rights and/or the Supplier Code of Conduct in addition to the on-site contractor onboarding process. Examples in 2020 include:

   Via its Human Rights Ambassador program, PT-FI continued providing representatives from contractor companies with train-the-trainer instruction on human rights and the VPs. After training, Human Rights Ambassadors serve within their respective contractor companies and promote awareness of PT-FI’s Human Rights Policy, emphasize our shared responsibility for human rights and annually train their company’s workforce on human rights. The PT-FI Human Rights Team organized a capacity building training for its Human Rights Ambassador’s in early 2020 and coordinated with them remotely throughout the year. The program was also expanded to include the Manyar smelter project in Gresik. Approximately 2,730 contractor employees and 180 private security contractor employees received induction or refresher training either directly from PT-FI or via its Human Rights Ambassador program in 2020.
   Cerro Verde trained approximately 338 contractors on our human rights policy.

Community members and third parties. Our engagement with communities and other third parties on our Human Rights policy and program varies by operation. For examples of how we engage with community members and others on security and human rights at our PT-FI operation in Indonesia and our Cerro Verde operation in Peru, refer to our 2020 Report to the VPs Plenary. Refer to the Due Diligence section for information on our site-level HRIA methodology and associated community engagement approach. Our Social Performance Policy, Human Rights Policy and other sustainability policies are available to community members and other external stakeholders (local and international) in multiple languages in the Values, Policies & Practices section of our website, as well as on the websites of our subsidiaries.

Risk Register Process

As we seek to further embed respect for human rights across our organizational activities, we use our Risk Register process to identify the human rights risks at each operation and address potential and actual impacts on rights-holders across risk categories as outlined in our Human Rights Dashboard. This process is informed by ongoing stakeholder engagement, grievance management and the results of HRIAs. Similarly, our Project Development Sustainability Review process supports the integration sustainability considerations – including those related to human rights and security - into development or expansion project phases.

Audits and Assessments

To facilitate implementation of our policy commitments and objectives, including those related to human rights, we use a combination of audit and assessment programs along with an annual program for independent, site-level assurance of our sustainability framework and implementation of our ICMM membership and Copper Mark commitments. Our site-level HRIAs help us apply a human rights lens to our established management systems and test their effectiveness in identifying, mitigating and remediating human rights risks and impacts.

We set company-wide performance targets to support key objectives, including in areas prioritized in our Risk Register. This includes a target of incurring zero gross human rights violations at our operations caused by our employees or contractors as well as a target of incurring zero fatalities. For a full list of our 2020 performance and targets, please refer to the Performance Targets section of our website.

Grievance Mechanisms & Remedy

As highlighted in our PBC, we have an open-door culture whereby employees are encouraged to openly discuss any questions or concerns about the way we conduct business. This open communication is vital to our growth as employees, a team and a company. Each of our employees has a responsibility to immediately report suspected violations of the PBC, our policies and procedures, or the law to the appropriate personnel, including supervisors, local or corporate Human Resources representatives, local or corporate Legal department, local or corporate Compliance Officer, or others as appropriate. Our global, publicly available reporting channels associated with our PBC are available to our employees. They also are available to members of our supply chain (including contractors) via our Supplier Code of Conduct. We also maintain long-established, site-level community grievance mechanisms at our operating facilities per our Social Performance Policy, as well as dedicated human rights grievance mechanisms at higher risk operations. All of these grievance mechanisms are available in local languages. They help us address concerns early and remediate impacts directly.

We do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who raises a question or concern about our business practices in good faith. We are committed to:

   Protecting the confidentiality of anyone who reports potential violations should they request it
   Cooperating with human rights-related investigations
   Supporting appropriate remediation for proven violations

Per our Human Rights Policy, use of our internal and external grievance mechanisms does not preclude access to judicial or other non-judicial grievance mechanisms. In the event of accusations made via a state-based non-judicial grievance mechanisms (e.g., such as proceedings through the OECD National Contact Points), we would participate in related proceedings constructively, cooperatively and in good faith.

Updates to our community grievance mechanism are being rolled out in 2021 to incorporate the effectiveness criteria outlined in the UNGPs. The ICMM’s updated good practice guidance on Handling and Resolving Local-level Concerns and Grievances, together with input from employees, community members and their legitimate representatives, is informing these updates. This initiative is in line with our policy commitment to engaging with affected stakeholders and their representatives in the development of our human rights approach. To learn more, please refer to the Communities and Community Grievance Mechanisms sections of our website.

Our grievance mechanisms support our commitment to remedy. While we seek to avoid causing and contributing to adverse impacts on individuals and communities, we acknowledge they may occur. We are committed to providing for and cooperating in remediation of adverse impacts related to our business as well as collaborating with value chain stakeholders to address impacts linked to our business relationships. Remedy can take a range of forms, including cessation of impact, apology, restoration of what was lost, cash or in-kind compensation, and/or rehabilitation through the provision of medical, psychological, legal or social services. Remedy also involves the identification of lessons learned and taking steps to prevent reoccurrence.

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