Employees Welfare and Their Occupational Health and Safety
As of September 30, 2014, we had approximately 615 employees. Of these, 45 are employed at our head office, with the remaining 570 employed in mining operations at our existing mines in Cagdianao. Of our workforce onsite at our existing mine, approximately 164 are engaged in various maintenance and ancillary functions, 158 work in our on-site quality control laboratory and 248 are in administrative, technical and professional roles, including our senior management. As of September 30, 2014, our two mining contractor, Frasec and 4K, had deployed an aggregate workforce of 1,245 and 804, respectively, at our Cagdianao site. We do not currently anticipate any significant increase or decrease in the number or allocation of our employees over the next twelve months.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
We are committed to providing safe and healthy working conditions to protect our employees from injuries and to prevent damage to our properties and equipment.Health and safety are integral parts of our personnel policies. Our comprehensive safety program is designed to minimize health risks arising out of work activities and to assure compliance with occupational health and safety standards and rules and regulations that apply to our operations.
We strictly require the utilization of a comprehensive suite of protective equipment and safety devices for employees and visitors which we provide. First aid and emergency equipment are installed strategically in our work areas. Safety in-house inspections are regularly conducted to identify hazards and unsafe conditions or practices. Managers and supervisors regularly conduct safety briefings and meetings. Safety orientation training is also conducted for new employees and emergency preparedness training and drills are conducted periodically.
We have a rigorous system of investigating accidents and near-misses to understand causes and implement corrective measures. We record and monitor lost time injuries, medically treated injuries, minor injuries and non-injury incidents which include serious incidents, and property damage and their frequency rates. In the past three years, we have had one isolated fatal accident at our mine site.
We have won a number of awards for operating some of the safest and environmentally friendly surface mines in the Philippines. In addition to other awards, our operations have been recognized with the most improved safety performance by Philippine Mine Safety and environment Association during the 61st Annual National Mine Safety and Environment Conference held at Baguio City on November 14, 2014. In addition, PGMC is also one of the nominees for the Best Mining Forest award for 2014.