Connecting with our workforce

Mining is a long-term business with decades-long timescales. Our relationships with our stakeholders are central to our long-term success and to our purpose of developing mining for a better future. The Group’s governance structures ensure that the views and interests of stakeholders, including our employees and contractors, are discussed in the boardroom and considered as part of the Board’s deliberations.

The Group maintains strong relations with its workforce, based on trust, continuous dialogue and favourable working conditions. The Board has carefully considered and reviewed the mechanisms in place to allow the Board to understand the views of the Group’s workforce. Ultimately, the Board has decided not to adopt any of the three workforce engagement mechanisms recommended in the UK Corporate Governance Code (a Director appointed from the workforce, a formal workforce advisory panel or a designated non-executive director). The Board considers that adopting any of these mechanisms would interfere with the effective, structured and formal combination of mechanisms already in place with a highly unionised workforce.

The Group’s workforce comprises 29,877 people, including employees, permanent contractors and temporary contractors associated with projects. Approximately 27% of the workforce are Group employees and 73% are employees of contractor companies. More than 99% of the Group’s employees are in Chile, and 55% are residents of the regions in which we operate. Approximately 76% of the Group’s employees are unionised. This number is close to 100% at the operator level. The Group maintains ongoing dialogue with labour unions and key issues are raised with, and discussed by, the Remuneration and Talent Management Committee and the Board.

The Group has established control mechanisms to ensure that contractor companies, whose employees are often members of their own labour unions, meet the Group’s standards and guidelines on labour, environmental and social and ethical matters and adopt good practices with regard to safe workplaces and the quality of employment. Contractors’ employees receive the same minimum protections as the Group’s employees under Chilean labour law and the Group requires contractors to pay their employees ethical wages – which as of December 2024 were 26% higher in the Mining Division than the Chilean legal minimum – and to provide other basic benefits, including life and health insurance. These protections are subject to regular audits by independent third parties to ensure full compliance with these standards.

Below is a selection of the workforce engagement mechanisms that the Board currently has in place:

• Directors regularly visit the Group’s operations either individually or in small groups throughout the year and engage informally with the workforce and other parties to gauge overall workforce culture. Impressions and views arising from these visits are reported to the Board and its Committees, and related questions are raised with the management team.
• Labour relations matters, proposed labour negotiation limits and feedback from labour negotiations are reported directly to the Remuneration and Talent Management Committee and the Board throughout the year as a key part of the CEO’s general updates to the Board.
• The CEO, the Chief Operations Officer, Vice President of Los Pelambres, Vice President of People and Organisation, and the General Managers and HR Managers of each relevant operation meet with union representatives during the year to share relevant information and listen to concerns and suggestions, the results of which are shared with the Remuneration and Talent Management Committee and the Board.
• The CEO met with union representatives during 2024, enabling him to share business performance and challenges associated with the Group’s strategic framework, reinforce shared culture and values and listen to concerns and ideas. The purpose of these meetings is to foster a collaborative dialogue and working environment.
• Group-wide employee engagement surveys are conducted every two or three years. These surveys are conducted by independent third parties on behalf of the Group, and the results are reported to the Remuneration and Talent Management Committee and the Board. Engagement surveys were conducted across the Mining Division in 2024, and the results were reviewed with the Remuneration and Talent Management Committee and the Board.
• The Group’s workforce is encouraged to report any concerns to the Ethics Committee through the confidential whistleblowing hotline. Reports may be made anonymously. All reports are followed up and investigated and overall figures and trends and any specific cases involving a potential crime are reported to the Audit and Risk Committee and the Board.

During 2024, the Board applied feedback received from the workforce regarding decisions related to talent retention initiatives, the oversight of labour negotiations and the development of the Group’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.