HIV/Aids
UNAIDS implemented an ambitious treatment target to help end the AIDS epidemic known as 90-90-90. Its aim is that by 2020, 90 per cent of all people living with HIV will know their status, 90 per cent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained anti-retroviral therapy and 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression. Sasol has used these targets to measure its own progress on reducing the impact of AIDS on its workforce. Our HIV/AIDS programme is based on prevention through awareness, education (World AIDS Day campaign), access to testing, counselling and treatment. We also provide support services to HIV positive employees, service providers and their families.
How Sasol meets the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets
FIRST TARGET:
90 percent of people should
be tested for HIV in any given
population
Achieved: tested
SECOND TARGET:
90 percent of people that have tested positive for HIV should be on treatment
Achieved: of people on therapy
THIRD TARGET:
90 percent of people who are HIV positive, and on therapy, should have a suppressed viral load
Achieved: of people on therapy with a suppressed viral load
Managing other health issues
Employees and service providers are also regularly screened for diabetes, hyperlipidaemia and hypertension. Where employees are diagnosed with more than one of the above chronic diseases, they are enrolled on the high-risk beneficiary programme run by Sasolmed. This programme aims to manage high-risk employees effectively to ensure that hospitalisation is avoided where possible, or limited, to help employees to be at work and make a positive contribution to Sasol.
Sasolmed has a contract with Document Based Care (DBC), which specialises in back and neck rehabilitation. The purpose of this programme is to treat employees conservatively, in order to avoid spinal surgery as far as possible.
As part of our holistic approach to wellness, we also offer short-term counselling sessions to assist employees with mental health and stress-related issues. Our OME’s Human Resources (HR) and Line Managers are trained to manage sick leave and absence without leave to an acceptable level, compared to an internationally accepted benchmark, by monitoring trends and identifying employees that need to be managed through implementation of the Sasol work incapacity policy. The absenteeism rate for 2018 was 3,7% compared to 3,3% for 2017.
We also offer financial wellbeing assistance as we recognise the correlation between financial health and stress-related health issues. Through this programme, employees are provided with opportunities for financial education to make informed financial decisions.
The impact of our health and wellbeing programmes
We enable a healthy workforce that is fit-for work and able to work safely and productively throughout their careers at Sasol. Through our various programmes, we focus on fostering the health and wellbeing of our employees. As such we invest in multiple programmes to deliver on this objective, with the following outcomes achieved in 2018:
Occupational disease
Number of statutory reported occupational diseases, down to 29 from 39 in 2017.
Improved occupational incident rate (ODIR) to 0,03 from 0,045 in 2017.