Employees support within communities

Our employees privately support a range of volunteer and charitable organisations through donating their time, labour and skills. They also provide financial support to charities through automatic salary contributions.

Our Community Service Leave Policy provides all employees with a minimum of two days paid leave to support local, charitable organisations. This Policy was formally introduced in early 2005.

Support of youth and education initiatives.

Youth, education and employment have been identified as key issues in our communities.

To help address these issues, WMC supports programs that encourage young people to remain at school and assist their ultimate entry into the workforce.

One such program is a highly-successful initiative: Tools for Change.

Started by employees at our Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter in Western Australia in 1997, the program is now in its eighth year.

The program assists students - Indigenous and non-Indigenous - in their transition from primary to secondary school. The program provides transition and relationship-building activities for participants from various schools prior to them entering high school. The program includes activities involving teachers, WMC employees, local police and representatives from local service groups and local businesses.

The program has been run in Kalgoorlie every year since 1997. Around 500 students participate annually.

A pilot Tools For Change program was conducted in Mt Isa in 2003 involving eighty students from two schools.

On the success of this pilot, WMC's partners in the program - including the Queensland Education Department, the Police Services and the other State schools - have committed to expanding it to all seven primary schools in Mt Isa in 2004.

In 2005 we will evaluate the possibility of further extending the program to schools in the Northern Goldfields of Western Australia and Roxby Downs and the other communities associated with our Olympic Dam Operations in South Australia.

• Read about Our Approach to Community Support.