31 August 2016

Whitehaven’s Aboriginal Employment Strategy Wins Award

Whitehaven’s Coal’s Aboriginal Employment Strategy at the Maules Creek Mine has won a prestigious industry award.

Our focus on employing our workforce from the local communities was acknowledged in the 2016 NSW Minerals Council Health, Safety, Environment and Community Conference
Awards where Whitehaven was named winner in the Community Excellence in Aboriginal Employment and Enterprise Development category.

The winners were announced at the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley. Each award recipient was acknowledged for their innovation and excellence in ‘workers health’, ‘mine safety’, ‘environmental sustainability’ and ‘community engagement’.

“As always, our awards entrants were all of a very high calibre, demonstrating mining’s commitment to innovative approaches to solving problems and the pursuit of excellence,” NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee said. “These awards are an important part of our industry’s continuous improvement and will deliver”improved outcomes for our workforce and their local communities.”

Watch a video on the award:

We take great pride that we started in the Gunnedah Basin and we focus on employing our workforce from the local communities. We believe that the best way we can assist to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is by offering the opportunity of stable, long-term employment. Whitehaven has made a commitment that our Maules Creek workforce will
contain at least 10% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. During early recruitment at Maules Creek we are already exceeding our aspirational target, with 12% of the Maules Creek workforce being Indigenous.

Pictured below is Whitehaven’s Aboriginal Community Relations Officer Bob Sutherland accepting the award.

The latest award caps a successful year of honours for Whitehaven Coal. Earlier this year Maules Creek was named NSW Mine of the Year by the Minerals Council,  our apprenticeship scheme won the 2016 HVTC Large Host Employer Award and the company’s 2015 Annual Report claimed a Silver Award in the Australasian Reporting Awards.

 

 

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