SUSTAINABILITY Human capital

Human rights

Introduction

Stakeholders are an integral part of Gold Fields’ business. Their support underpins our social licence to operate, which, in turn, impacts our ability to create enduring value. We recognise our activities have the potential to adversely impact the human rights of our stakeholders. Gold Fields is committed to upholding and respecting the human rights of our stakeholders, including but not limited to employees, communities, contractors, suppliers, service providers and business partners.  This commitment is key to us delivering our vision to be the preferred gold mining company delivering sustainable, superior value.  

Summary

We recognise our activities, from exploration, construction, operations and closure have the potential for a range of human rights risks which we strive to prevent or mitigate. We remediate human rights impacts which we have caused and contributed to through our activities. Respect for human rights underpins our leading commitment to ESG, which is one of Gold Fields three strategic pillars. We report our actions to prevent, mitigate and address human rights risks and impacts in our Integrated Annual Report. The Gold Fields Board, particularly its Social, Ethics and Transformation Committee has oversight of human rights in relation to our business.

Our key human rights commitments are to:

We incentivise both strong safety performance and behaviours and gender diversity through Group and individual performance incentive programmes using leading and lagging indicators. Details are provided in our Remuneration Report.

Impact

Eight salient human rights have been identified at Gold Fields. These issues have the potential to cause the most severe negative impacts because of our activities or business relationships and mitigating them is the focus of work by our teams.

In determining the salient issues, we recognize our workers and contractors, particularly female and vulnerable workers, and our host communities, particularly women, children, resettled communities and Indigenous Peoples as our most vulnerable stakeholders.

Gold Fields’ Policies and Commitments

Our Human Rights Policy Statement was updated in 2021, and forms an integral part of our Sustainable Development framework and commits us to respect and uphold the fundamental human rights and freedoms listed below in respect of our stakeholders:

It notes Gold Fields’ support for the:

Specifically, in addition to other Gold Fields’ policy commitments, we:

Everyone working for Gold Fields plays a role in respecting these fundamental rights.

Gold Fields is also committed to screen and review all participation in its supply chain across the world. Where a human rights and related violation is identified and assessed, we will either engage with the applicable entity to discuss remediation, or we exit the business relationship.  

The following internal policies and guidelines support our work in this area:

As a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), we engage actively with our peers on human rights in the organisation’s committees, working groups and practice groups. We are required to implement and publicly report and assure our performance against its Mining Principles and Performance Expectations, particularly:

Respect human rights and the interests, cultures, customs and values of workers and communities affected by our activities

  1. Support the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by developing a policy commitment to respect human rights, undertaking human rights due diligence and providing for or cooperating in processes to enable the remediation of adverse human rights impacts that we have caused or contributed to.
  2. Avoid the involuntary physical or economic displacement of families and communities. Where this is not possible apply the mitigation hierarchy and implement actions or remedies that address residual adverse effects to restore or improve livelihoods and standards of living of displaced people.
  3. Implement, based on risk, a human rights and security approach consistent with the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
  4. Respect the rights of workers by: not employing child or forced labour; avoiding human trafficking; not assigning hazardous/dangerous work to those under 18; eliminating all forms of harassment and discrimination; respecting freedom of association and collective bargaining; and providing an appropriate mechanism to address workers grievances.
  5. Equitably remunerate employees with wages that equal or exceed legal requirements or represent a competitive wage within that job market (whichever is higher) and assign regular and overtime working hours within legally required limits.
  6. Respect the rights, interests, aspirations, culture and natural resource-based livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples in project design, development and operation; apply the mitigation hierarchy to address adverse impacts and; deliver sustainable benefits for Indigenous Peoples.
  7. Work to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples where significant adverse impacts are likely to occur, as a result of relocation, disturbance of lands and territories or of critical cultural heritage, and capture the outcomes of engagement and consent processes in agreements.
  8. Implement policies and practices to respect the rights and interests of women that reflect gender-informed approaches to work practices and job design, and that protect against all forms of discrimination and harassment, and behaviours that adversely impact on women’s successful participation in the workplace.
  9. Implement policies and practices to respect the rights and interests of all workers and improve workforce representation in the workplace so it is more inclusive.

We apply ICMM’s guidance on:

As a member of the World Gold Council (WGC), we are required to implement and publicly report and assure our performance against its Responsible Gold Mining Principles, particularly:

Human rights and conflict: we will respect the human rights of our workforce, affected communities and all those people with whom we interact

  1. UN Guiding Principles: We will adopt and implement policies, practices and systems based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
  2. Avoiding complicity: We will seek to ensure that we do not cause, and are not complicit in, human rights abuses either directly or through our business relationships.
  3. Security and human rights: We will manage security-related human rights risks through implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
  4. Conflict: We will implement the Conflict-Free Gold Standard. We will ensure that when we operate in conflict affected or high-risk areas our operations do not cause, support or benefit unlawful armed conflict or contribute to human rights abuses or breaches of international humanitarian law.

We interact with peers on human rights in the WGC Environment Social and Governance (ESG) Taskforce and Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) Working Group.

National industry associations in our countries of operation also address human rights and we participate actively in these forms.

Management Actions

We have refreshed and rolling our our e-learning human rights training to equip all our employees with a sound understanding of human rights, how these rights affect our company and stakeholders, and empower our people to uphold these rights.

We conduct ongoing human rights due diligence by adding a human rights lens to our company wide risk management processes across the lifecycle of mining that include audits, environmental and social impact assessments and legal due diligence informing investment decisions, employee surveys, internal audits, internal control and assurance systems for policy compliance, mine-community relationship assessments, country risk assessments. Our sites also apply a human rights due diligence tool focused on issues of relevance to our business such as resettlement, ASM, indigenous peoples, and gender. Key findings from this assessment are that:

We also conduct independent, standalone human rights impact assessments as relevant such as regarding tailings storage facilities and workplace safety. These processes are underpinned by stakeholder engagement providing insights into the concerns of our stakeholders.

All stakeholders in the supply chain are screened monthly according to predefined risk metrics that include human rights. An interactive Third-Party Due Diligence Gateway enables our procurement teams to assess actual, potential, or perceived risks of procuring products and services. Based on the nature and extent of the assessed risk, we shall engage with the stakeholder and collaborate to address identified concerns. If the risk cannot be mitigated, we shall not enter into a business relationship.

We have internal grievance mechanisms in place to ensure employees and contractors can raise human rights concerns. Grievances are handled by Gold Fields' HR function in consultation with legal teams. A confidential third-party whistleblowing hotline is in place for stakeholders. These mechanisms will be reviewed in 2023 in response to learnings from our workforce culture review.

We are committed to addressing community issues and concerns relating to our operations timeously and effectively, where possible. We rely on an external grievance reporting system to maintain confidence and transparent communication with our stakeholders. This mechanism enables and encourages community members to voice their complaints freely, while obligating our mines to address the grievances within an agreed period. Where our team is not able to resolve grievances, they are escalated to independent mediation.

Performance in 2022

Workforce

Community

Suppliers

Security

Our Stakeholders and Partners

Stakeholders are an integral part of Gold Fields’ business, representing a wide range of rights and interests that both influence and are impacted by our business and operations.  Ensuring that our stakeholders’ interests are appropriately represented, considered and acted upon is critical to achieving our Purpose of creating enduring value beyond mining.  This Purpose, together with our Vision of being the preferred gold mining company, delivering sustainable, superior value, requires us to develop strong relationships with our stakeholders, built on open, transparent, and meaningful engagement.

For engagement to be meaningful, it must have mutual respect and trust at its core, and allow for participative and informed decision-making, balancing our stakeholders’ interests, needs and expectations with our own.  This balance is also reflected in our approach to shared value, with a commitment to achieving outcomes that are mutually beneficial.

We commit to:

The following are regarded as our key stakeholders, across the Group:

Reporting and Disclosure

Gold Fields Human Rights risks and performance are monitored, reported and transparently. This includes but is not limited to: 

The Company’s approach and commitment to Human Rights is publicly disclosed on the Gold Fields website. 

Case Study

Shift the leading center of expertise on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as part of its Valuing Respect Project, a collaborative initiative to redefine evaluation of business respect for huma rights – has published a case study on Using Relationship Data to Improve Business Practices: Measuring company-community relationships Gold Fields South Deep mine in recognition of steps the company has taken to improve its practices based on the insight from community shared in the assessment https://shiftproject.org/recourse/case-study-goldfields/