Our BHP Billiton Iron Ore operation in the Pilbara region of Western Australia recognises that, for the business to be sustainable, local communities must share in and benefit from the Company’s success. We also acknowledge that addressing deep-seated problems such as the under-representation of indigenous people in the workforce is a complex matter requiring partnership and engagement with a range of stakeholders.
Developing relationships with our host indigenous communities and other partners has been slow but steady. Commencing in 1992, a dedicated Aboriginal Affairs Department was established at BHP Billiton Iron Ore.
‘Investment in Aboriginal Relationships’ program
In 2000, we instigated the ‘Investment in Aboriginal Relationships’ program, a key initiative driven by the Aboriginal Affairs Department to ensure a spread of benefits to the indigenous people of the Pilbara and further improve and develop relationships with them.
This is a long-term program aimed at benefiting the Company, indigenous people and the community through activities focusing on increasing opportunities for education, training and employment as well as assisting with indigenous enterprise and community development and cultural heritage management.
Many aspects of the program, such as those concerned with increasing indigenous employment, are long-term projects and, in order to be successful and sustainable, need Corporate endorsement and support. In this case, the opportunity was realised when BHP Billiton signed the Corporate Leaders for Indigenous Employment statement in October 1999 and later when BHP Billiton Iron Ore signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the then Commonwealth Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business.
We also decided as part of the launch of the ‘Investment in Aboriginal Relationships’ program to publicly commit the business to a target of achieving 12 per cent indigenous employment within our Pilbara operations by 2010, reflecting the proportion of indigenous people in the region.
Recognising that there is no easy solution to the challenge of increasing indigenous employment, the program’s strategies and actions are diverse and the scope all-encompassing. The program takes in all operational areas: mining, port, railway and Boodarie Iron. It includes a raft of associated initiatives in the areas of education and direct and indirect (contractor-based) employment. Contractors represent around 50 per cent of our workforce and the biggest opportunity for increasing indigenous employment is at the entry-level skill area. Other initiatives focus on developing indigenous businesses and improving their contracting opportunities with us.
We also recognised that for any of these actions and initiatives to get off the ground and be successful, they would require a significant cultural change in the business. Dealing with this was part and parcel of the overall program.
Employment programs
While realising that long-term strategies would be needed if success was to be sustainable, we also looked at opportunities where we could gain some positive outcomes quickly. For example, when the program was rolled out in 2000 it was estimated that just one Aboriginal apprentice and one Aboriginal trainee were employed across the entire business. Today, BHP Billiton Iron Ore employs 55 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander apprentices in engineering, mechanical and electrical trades and trainees in clerical and mine production roles.
David Stock, Nyiyaparli Elder and Native Title Claimant, says ‘I like our young fellas getting jobs and going to school and learn this and that. [For] Aboriginal people, that will be much better. Well, you know, work together with them. We like to see that happening, our young fellas getting jobs and going to school and learning stuff and that will be much better’.
Prior to the program, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders appeared not to be applying for apprenticeships and traineeships. The Company made the incorrect assumption that local indigenous people were either not interested in applying for positions or thought they would not be able to pass the initial selection process.
That assumption was turned on its head in the first year of the program as a number of local indigenous applicants were successful in gaining apprenticeships in their own right, without recourse to the support designed as part of the program. The support, if required, enables those apprenticeship applicants who don’t quite make the grade to be taken on for one-year pre-apprentice traineeships. The aim during this tenure is to help them develop their ability to be successful in the following year’s intake.
Educational programs
The importance of education initiatives to the overall success of the program cannot be underestimated. BHP Billiton Iron Ore is now the primary sponsor of two education programs that we conduct in partnership with the Western Australian Department of Education & Training, the Commonwealth Department of Employment & Workplace Relations, the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science & Training, the local indigenous community and the Graham (Polly) Farmer Foundation. One of the programs is at Port Hedland and another recently commenced at Newman.
The Port Hedland Partnership program is now into its third year. Through mentoring, homework supervision and work experience, the program aims to assist indigenous children to achieve their full potential. Students attending school in Years 8 to12 can apply to be selected. A compact is established with the selected students, their families and the partners, which includes a commitment to work towards set educational and personal growth goals. A dedicated coordinator is jointly funded by the partners. In addition, we have provided a building that is available for student use after school. It contains computer equipment and facilities for tutoring, homework, recreation and dining. A bus is available for student pick up and drop off as well as for excursion activities.
Applying for positions in the partnership program is highly competitive; for example, in 2003 there were 32 applicants for the five vacant positions. The students selected are those who show promise, are committed to their education and have family support and encouragement. Overall, there has been a noted improvement in grades and school attendance by the participating students and they are becoming role models among their colleagues, family and the broader community.
Supporting local businesses
Our commitment to developing and supporting local indigenous businesses has seen some real success. An example is the support provided to Ngarda Civil and Mining, a partnership between mining contractor Henry Walker Eltin, Indigenous Business Australia and the Ngarda Ngarli Yarndu Foundation, which represents all indigenous groups in the ATSIC Ngarda Ngarli Yarndu Regional Council region. The partnership agreement stipulated that Ngarda had to employ local people for local jobs but that it also had to be commercially successful.
After initially providing a number of small miscellaneous housing maintenance contracts to Ngarda, in 2003 BHP Billiton Iron Ore awarded two significant and long-term ‘open book’ contracts at the Boodarie Iron mine and on Finucane Island, with a collective worth of over AUD$10 million per year.
The aim of this support is to enable Ngarda to develop and demonstrate efficiencies over the duration and become competitive in the mainstream marketplace. All contracts awarded to Ngarda have a minimum requirement for 85 per cent indigenous employment. Ngarda’s performance has been remarkable; for example, at Finucane Island where it has a mobile plant and equipment contract, the business continues to achieve very satisfactory loading rates and demonstrate a high level of compliance with occupational health and safety standards and has received a BHP Billiton Iron Ore Audit Safety Award and a 2003 Industrial Foundation for Accident Prevention Award for six months without a lost time injury.
Ngarda manager Brian Hughey says retention rates are good and unexplained absenteeism is low. ‘In a work environment, indigenous people are a lot more comfortable when they are in the majority’, Mr Hughey said. ‘In organisations that are predominantly non-indigenous, people don’t tend to get the support they need and often last only six months then move on. Where we employ them in big numbers and they are the majority, they tend to support each other and keep each other going’. According to Mr Hughey, Ngarda has work contracts worth AUD$60 million on its books and in 2003/04 would pay AUD$4.8 million in wages to its 86 Aboriginal employees in the district.
We have been working hard to bring our contractors in line with our vision and goals for increased indigenous employment, and, as a result, all major mining contracts, as they come up for renewal, have minimum percentages for indigenous employment. For example, the mining contract at Area C when awarded in 2003 had a minimum first year requirement of 6 per cent with a 1 per cent per annum increase up to its conclusion in 2006.
The company that was awarded the Area C contract, HWE, has exceeded this and their indigenous employment level is currently at 9 per cent. Service contracts awarded by BHP Billiton Iron Ore also have provisions for minimum percentages of indigenous employment.
Partnerships have been crucial in achieving higher levels of indigenous employment. One of the most significant has been a partnership that developed out of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Workplace Relations. In 2003, we signed a Structure Training and Employment Program contract with the provision of AUD$1.2 million for subsidising our indigenous employment programs.
The subsidies have enabled us to invest in further indigenous employment, training and education initiatives, the overall success of which led to BHP Billiton Iron Ore being a finalist in the 2003 Corporate Leaders For Indigenous Employment awards.
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