Published by Computachem Services

P.O Box 297.
Alstonville. 2477
NSW Australia

Phone:
61 2 66285138

Recent events in the workplace have sent me to the internet, looking for examples of social responsibility from employers, in relation to the health and wellbeing of their own staff.
Like most pharmacies, my workplace has a high proportion of working parents who have chosen to juggle family and career.
I never cease to be amazed at their depths of stamina and resolve!
However, problems can arise when there are no options for caring for children when they are ill.
It reached a point where we may have lost two or three staff on one day to care for their respective children.
As all the staff involved were close friends we negotiated a settlement allowing one staff member to mind all the children, freeing up two of the staff for work that day.
Like in any pharmacy, losing three staff on one day would have left an unreasonable burden on the remaining staff.

Innovative labour practices regarding the health and wellbeing of staff and their families are often slow to catch on, and in Australia we are lagging behind many parts of the world. One reason is the system of universal health care we have in Australia. This system is a model many countries around the world have looked at and attempted to recreate because of its success but it has limitations, particularly regarding its integration with the working practices of citizens.

In countries with no universal health care safety net, such as the USA, the strong labour organisations have been able to secure company-funded health insurance for staff. There are many benefits for the company in ensuring access to health care for their staff, not the least of which is a reduction in staff turnover and ongoing continuity in the workplace.

The best example I've seen recently of this practice is light years removed from the example I gave above.

Anglo American is one of the world's biggest mining companies. According to articles on Reuters this month if now plans to offer free anti-retroviral treatment to employees infected with HIV. In South Africa it has around 90 000 employees, of whom around 23% are infected. The extent of the problem could be measured for them quite easily in dollar terms. It is currently costing them between US$4 and US$6 per ounce of gold produced. If the AIDS pandemic in that country is not controlled it could cost them up to US$9 per ounce. For a company that produces almost 6 million ounces of gold a year this is an incredible expense. A more recent article on Reuters outlined their plans to source their HIV medications from the Indian generic manufacturer Cipla and possibly their rivals Ranbaxy.

This is undoubtedly a positive move, and while it represents an extreme case, the logic applied by Anglo-American is similar to that used in the first example I used above. We can expect to see more examples of this social responsibility from employers as the true costs of employment become more obvious and easier to measure. Traditional measures have failed to keep pace with changing societal trends. We need to be able to recognise the health and wellbeing of staff and their family as a resource, and one that needs careful mangement.