Anglo American is to give free Aids drugs to all its employees in South Africa who need them.
The second largest mining company in the world says the scheme has been set up to help staff in dire need, but also to reduce future Aids-related costs such as absenteeism and the recruitment and training costs of replacing ill employees.
Around one in five of its 90,000 workers in South Africa have tested HIV-positive.
The initiative is the result of an agreement signed last month with trade unions and is part of Anglo American’s new corporate social responsibility strategy (EP4, issue 2).
The company will also provide education and counselling on HIV and Aids. ‘We hope to promote the individual behavioural change that is essential to turn the tide of the Aids epidemic,’ it said.
Businesses in South Africa have been under increasing pressure from governments and non-governmental organizations over the past two years to help tackle the Aids problem there.