Respecting People

Commitment to Employees

At Inco, we work hard to ensure that our employees have the environment, tools and training they need to do their work safely and effectively. And we work to build a culture across all of our operations that values diversity, is fair and inclusive, and provides opportunity for career fulfillment.

Our employment guidelines respect local cultural and structural requirements of the country in which we operate. For instance, at PT Inco we operate under a formal Contract of Work agreement with the Indonesian government. At Voisey's Bay, meanwhile, we are governed by a Development Agreement with the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Impact and Benefits Agreements with the Innu Nation and Labrador Inuit Association. However, regardless of where we operate, our operations adhere to both the spirit and the letter of the law in each jurisdiction.

For more information regarding our responsibility to employees across the company see Community Development.

Guiding Principles

Our commitment to our employees is expressed by our Guiding Principles. In order to attract, retain and develop our employees at all levels, Inco promises to:

• Provide pay and benefits which are competitive in the employment markets from which employees are drawn, which will reward successful performance and be internally equitable;
• Provide opportunities for individual growth and career satisfaction, and assist employees to realize their potential by providing appropriate training, development and educational and promotional opportunities;
• Observe all laws respecting non-discrimination or harassment on the grounds of race, ancestry, national origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, disability, record of offences, marital status, family status or age;
• Provide suitable work facilities and conditions with the objective of safeguarding the health, safety and general well-being of employees;
• Require all to maintain safe and effective work practices, including observing all legislated health and safety requirements.

While our formal Guiding Principles currently apply to our Canadian Operations, they serve as a guide for all of our operations.

Employee Human Rights Guidelines

Our Employee Human Rights Policy, which applies to our Canadian operations, is consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and universally accepted standards for basic labour rights including freedom of association, the right to organize, collective bargaining, abolition of forced and child labour and equality of opportunity and treatment. These Guidelines were reviewed in 2003.

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A Promise of Opportunity

As a company focused on dramatic growth and innovation, Inco offers our employees a wealth of career opportunity. We are committed to building and maintaining a dynamic workplace where every employee has the chance to be fully engaged in our business.

To assist employees in managing their own career paths, we have introduced the Inco Employee Development Web site, an online career planning tool available on our intranet web site and is accessible to 100 per cent of our employees.

We also encourage lifelong learning. As articulated in the Community Development section of this report, our individual operations are continually investing in training to ensure that our people have the skills and knowledge they need to do their jobs effectively and efficiently.

Trailblazers

Our training initiatives are also designed to ensure that we are building the next generation of skilled workers and leaders. For instance, in 2000 we introduced our Trailblazers program to ensure that we will continue to have the leadership our company needs to maintain our success. To date, some 61 employees have participated in the 18-month program which offers participants the opportunity to work with mentors and gain operational and leadership experience by assuming a new role or working on a new project. “Trailblazers offers a super opportunity for individuals in mid-career to develop their talents,” says Linda Padfield, Inco’s Director of Organizational Development. “Given that possibly one third of our management team is eligible to retire over the next three years, the program is also great for our company. It’s win-win.”

Sharing Rewards

At Inco, we believe that our employees have a right to share the rewards of our success. We offer salaries that are competitive with the industry. We strive to be at the 50th percentile in terms of employee compensation. To meet that goal, we conduct benchmarking surveys and use a third-party service to conduct annual reviews of employee compensation. Our benefits are second to none. Indeed, our non-contributory pension plan is recognized as being in the top 10 percentile of all corporations in North America. We additionally offer an extremely attractive health care package.

Inco Scholarships

Inco also provides a scholarship program for the children of employees and pensioners in Canada. Since the program started in 1956, we have awarded over $6 million in university scholarships to deserving young scholars.

Addressing Employee Concerns

The maintenance of close harmonious relations among all employees is of vital importance to the success of our company. Such relationships are based on mutual respect and understanding of both company and individual goals and needs.

One aspect of attaining this is to ensure that problems that inevitably arise in a diverse and dynamic organization are promptly dealt with. Should a conflict occur, we encourage individual employees to communicate with his or her immediate supervisor/manager. We also provide, at every location, a mechanism where employees are able to approach an unbiased source for help in resolving issues and concerns that are beyond the scope of the immediate supervisor/manager to deal with. For instance, both our Sudbury and Thompson operations have Ombudsperson programs.

Employee Responsibility

At Inco, we believe that we have many responsibilities to our employees. At the same time, our employees have a responsibility to our company. Particularly, our people have a responsibility to act in accordance with the highest standards of fairness, integrity and equity in all matters. We insist too that all our employees obey the laws of every country where we operate. Further we demand that individual employees declare any conflict of interest. We also recently launched an Ethics and Compliance Reporting hot-line for employees.

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