Gold Fields' participatory approach to HIV/AIDS

There is a sense in South Africa that the corporate world is failing to play an active part in the fight against HIV/AIDS, particularly in relation to the actuarial impact of the disease on the companies themselves. Gold Fields, however, had been addressing this pandemic disease for almost 15 years, said Ian Cockerill, its chief executive.

Speaking at a recent forum at the Gordon Institute of Business Science entitled "The Strategic Business Response to HIV/AIDS", Cockerill told a packed audience that between 26% and 28% of the company's 50 000 employees were HIV-positive, resulting in it spending about R90 million a year in direct and indirect costs for HIV/AIDS alone.

This translated to about $2 for each ounce of hold that the company produced a year. This could escalate to more than $10 an ounce if the company did nothing to stem the pandemic. "However, with the interventions we have put in place, we can keep the cost to around $3 to $4 per ounce," said Cockerill.

The number of infected employees was in line with the rest of the country. Exploding the myth that mines were a hotbed of HIV/AIDS carriers. Indeed, Gold Fields had taken a proactive approach since the 1980s, while in 1990 the company commenced cohort studies involving large numbers of volunteer employees to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS, the progression of which was closely monitored until 1999. At that stage policies were created, based on actuarial projections of the impact of the disease. "It does not appear to be as bad as the projected worst-case scenario, but it's not as good as we would have liked it to be," admitted Cockerill.

Before the end of last year, there was huge distrust on the part of organised labour, which felt that testing for the presence of HIV was a way of separating the healthy from the unhealthy. To counteract this, Gold Fields created a programme in which all parties agreed to a negotiated process of how to deal with pre-test counselling, testing, post-test counselling and treatment.

Following three years of trials, experiments and research between Gold Fields management, medical experts and unions to find the best way to respond while providing employees with the best care, the company put a policy agreement in place in December last year. This formalised the Informed, Consented, Voluntary Counselling and Testing programme, and the full implementation of the Wellness Management of the Prevention of Opportunistic Diseases programme.

Cockerill believed that it was the inclusiveness of all parties' participation in creating these programmes that was vital to their success. As a result, Gold Fields had seen a dramatic reduction in the number of sexually transmitted infections, which is one of the cornerstones in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

In its approach to preventing HIV/AIDS, Gold Fields had ensured that every person in the company had been exposed to at least one AIDS awareness programme. He said the company was energetic and diverse in its approach to educating and protecting its employees: it organised AIDS awareness days on Sundays and used celebrity speakers, industrial theatre and peer educators.

It distributed 250 000 free condoms a month to its employees and the general community, particularly sex workers. Empowering women in this process was vital, as they must insist on the use of condoms with every partner. To this end, part of Gold Fields' AIDS training programme for sex workers was negotiation skills to assist them in dealing with clients who did not want to use a condom.

It was widely agreed that the most important issue in any HIV/AIDS programme was creating an environment that destigmatised those infected and affected by the disease. Gold Fields staff understood, therefore, that they would be treated in a non-discriminatory and reasonable manner every time, by every person.

The company was supporting research into vaccines, the role of immune boosters and anti-retroviral therapy, which is already provided to some employees, such as healthcare workers, First Aid workers and rape survivors, to prevent potentially fatal diseases taking hold. Hospice facilities and home care were provided when needed. "There is no single silver bullet, but rather a smorgasbord of protocols that can help us deal with this problem," he said.