Social

At the end of 2009, PotashCorp employed 5,136 people, 35 percent of whom were salaried. The remainder are paid hourly. In addition, 587 contract workers were engaged in specific projects at the company’s sites.

Almost 60 percent of employees were skilled or semi-skilled craft workers or tradespeople working at our mines and manufacturing facilities.

We added a net 56 new positions in our potash operations, mostly at Cory where our expansion continued.

The decrease in US staffing was primarily due to a 168-person layoff at our White Springs FL phosphate facility. White Springs employees were offered severance packages that exceeded legal requirements and union contracts. Further details are available in our 2009 Summary Accountability Report.

PotashCorp’s Workforce by Country
PotashCorp’s Workforce by Employment Category

Company turnover numbers were up, primarily due to layoffs at White Springs FL.

Our Trinidad plant significantly reduced its turnover rate, rebounding from last year’s loss of some employees to competing operations. We continued to maintain a competitive compensation package in Trinidad, providing professional training, advancement opportunities and support along with competitive salary, bonus and benefits.

Our Canadian turnover rate was down from previous levels despite temporary inventory adjustment layoffs at all potash sites during 2009.

Employee Turnover

Employment Benefits — Benefits to our full-time workers in the US and Canada include health care, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, disability coverage, pension plans, maternity/parental leave, a savings plan, short-term incentive plan and stock ownership through the company’s savings plans. Temporary employees in Canada (but not in the United States) qualify for life insurance, health care, AD&D insurance and parental leave.

Employee Benefits in the US and Canada

In 2009, union members comprised 36 percent of our employees. The number of union jobs was reduced due to the permanent layoffs at White Springs FL. Sixty-six percent of union members work in Canada (potash) and 34 percent in the US (30 percent in phosphate, 4 percent in nitrogen). There are no unionized employees at our Trinidad operations.

Contract negotiations were successfully concluded in 2009 with the International Chemical Workers Union at White Springs, the Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union of Canada (local 922) at Lanigan SK and the Rocanville Potash Employees Association at Rocanville SK. All three were completed without disruption of operations.

Union Membership

Notification Provisions — In Canada, collective bargaining agreements and provincial labor legislation require one to eight weeks’ minimum notice for layoffs, usually depending on the employee’s length of employment and/or the duration of the layoff. In the United States, the notice period depends on the circumstances but ranges from two weeks to 60 days. Under specific circumstances involving a significant change in the employer’s operation of the business, “technological change” legislation and collective agreement language may require more extensive notice periods and negotiation between the parties. Prior to temporary layoffs, we advise employees and/or their elected representatives. However, terms and conditions for layoffs remain as previously negotiated and/or as defined by company policy.

Divestitures and Layoffs

Joint Health and Safety Committees — These committees represent the potash workforce, as required by law. The phosphate and nitrogen workforces have voluntary management-worker committees to address health and safety concerns. Committees are managed at each facility.

In 2009, we established record lows for the company in recordable and lost-time injury (LTI) rates. We reduced our overall LTI rate by 41 percent and our Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable rate by 27 percent.

We also set records in LTI and OSHA recordable rates in our phosphate division, where our increased emphasis on contractor safety performance yielded success. Total site recordable and LTI injury rates were down 20 percent and 37 percent, respectively, from 2008. These records were the result of our employees’ dedication to safety.

Injury Frequency Rates

Absenteeism is tracked at each site, and most supervisors are required to meet with employees who have above-average absentee rates.

Absenteeism Rates by Site

Unfortunately, we had a fatality at our New Brunswick potash facility in November when an underground construction worker was struck by a pipe during installation. We responded by rigorously re-evaluating the safety engagement and commitment of all managers, supervisors, employees and contractors. We also continue to focus on recognizing hazards and conditions while performing work.

Programs for Serious Diseases — Employees with a chronic or life-threatening illness are treated in the same manner as other employees, provided they perform the duties of their positions and their health conditions are not a hazard to themselves or others. Discriminatory acts by employees against workers with a chronic or life-threatening illness are unacceptable, and the offenders may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination. PotashCorp complies with applicable privacy laws by treating all employee medical information as confidential. Without medical evidence to the contrary, we do not believe that the presence of an employee with a chronic or life-threatening illness, including AIDS, poses a workplace hazard. Such employees will not be subject to different or unusual treatment, unless those actions are medically necessary to protect their safety or the safety of others.

Our Trinidad operation has an HIV/AIDS program that provides education and training, counseling, prevention and risk control for workers.

Programs to Reduce Incidence of Serious Diseases

We provide employee training and education assistance as part of our goal to attract and retain quality employees. Opportunities to upgrade skills include internal and external training and tuition assistance for college-level or higher degrees.

In 2009, PotashCorp employees received an average of 99 hours of training — the most training per employee recorded in five years. Much of this training occurred primarily at the plant sites, with focus on required job skills, safety and emergency response.

The top five training categories were:

• Training to improve job skills (43 percent of training hours provided)
• Safety training (17 percent)
• Crisis and emergency response training (10 percent)
• Apprenticeship training (9 percent)
• Employee development (4 percent)

Tuition Reimbursements

100% of salaried personnel are subject to a standardized performance appraisal process.   Hourly personnel may or may not be subject to an annual review process, depending on their site and union status (hourly employees at Aurora, Augusta, Geismar, Marseilles and Trinidad receive performance evaluations).  

Ethnic Composition — The ethnic diversity of our workforce has been relatively stable over the years for which data are available.

We had two minority board members in 2009.

Ethnic Diversity by Employment Category for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009

Gender Composition — Women accounted for almost 9 percent of PotashCorp’s workforce in 2009. The top three employment categories were administrative support (42 percent), professional jobs (27 percent) and managerial positions (16 percent).

There were three female board members.

PotashCorp Gender Diversity by Country: Female Employees as % of Total Employees
Gender Diversity in PotashCorp’s Management

PotashCorp does not track this information.

We made no significant acquisitions of other companies in 2009.

In 2009 and the beginning of 2010, all our facilities re-evaluated their key suppliers and their certifications to establish and maintain a rigorous culture of business ethics. We have identified more than 650 suppliers as key vendors, up from 380 in 2008. We are in the process of either receiving a signed certificate of business principles or reviewing the code of conduct for all our key vendors.

We distribute our Core Values and Code of Conduct to all employeesand train all employees every two years. All employees completed the training for the 2008-2009 training cycle. All employees are requested to sign a written confirmation of their knowledge, awareness and compliance with the Core Values and Code of Conduct on an annual basis.

There were no judicial or administrative decisions of discrimination made against us on the grounds of race, color, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin in 2009. A Diversity at Work training program was administered.

No operations have been identified where these rights are at risk.

Employees in all jurisdictions are older than the legal minimum ages in those jurisdictions. Our youngest employee worked at Trinidad and was 18 years and 4 months old at the end of 2009. None of our operations has been identified as being at significant risk for incidents of child labor and/or young workers exposed to hazardous work.

Meetings
We hold regular community meetings to build strong relationships and better understand and respond to concerns. We participated in or conducted 386 meetings in 2009.

2009 Community Meetings — by Type

Surveys
PotashCorp administers community leader surveys in the communities where we operate. The surveys use a scale of 1 (not performing well) to 5(performing very well).

Surveys were conducted between 2004 and 2009 at all the locations where we operate. We achieved our target score of 4 or above at 14 of 15 sites surveyed, with an average score of 4.2 for all sites.

We learned that communities judge our company by our local actions rather than our national reputation or performance. The most common criticism was that PotashCorp needed to communicate more about our activities to the community.

Community leaders at Aurora, NC, Cincinnati, OH and Joplin, MO completed surveys in 2009 to help us measure perceptions of our community involvement, our business practices (specifically regarding safety, health and environment) and our impact on local economies.

In the past, we have hired consultants to perform high-level Fraud Vulnerability Assessments to identify vulnerabilities and to make recommendations to mitigate risk associated with fraud. The recommendations have been addressed.

During the past year, PotashCorp provided more than 1,600 hours of training for selected employees in anti-trust regulations and behavior, addressing whistleblower claims, business ethics, information security, employment law and responsibilities for financial reporting.

No PotashCorp employees were dismissed or disciplined for corruption in 2009. We have a zero tolerance policy for employee corruption.

There were no instances in 2009 where contracts with business partners were not renewed due to violations related to corruption. No legal cases regarding corrupt practices were concluded against the company or our employees in 2009. No fines or non-monetary sanctions were levied against PotashCorp in 2009 related to accounting fraud or corruption.

We engage federal governments through our industry organizations:  The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) in the US, Canadian Fertilizer Institute (CFI) in Canada and the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) for global issues. Public policy issues addressed or monitored in 2009 included:

• Proposed Climate Change legislation — Through TFI and CFI, we tracked pending legislation.  Our CEO met with three US senators and one congressman to discuss the impact of the proposed climate change legislation on the fertilizer industry and agriculture. Our COO met with two senators. We want to ensure that any legislation protects food security and gives companies incentives to operate sensibly.

• Proposed rules on nutrient runoff – We worked with TFI to respond to a growing concern about how commercial fertilizers — nitrogen and phosphate — are negatively affecting rivers, streams and other bodies of water. In Florida, the EPA has proposed Numeric Nutrient Criteria that would limit the amount of nutrients in waterways. TFI has provided comments to EPA and attended public meetings to make sure the new rules have the correct scientific basis to protect the environment in a cost-effective way.

  Through our trade associations, we continue to educate farmers and policy makers about nutrient management to help reduce fertilizer runoff. TFI and CFI support more than 13,000 certified crop advisors in North America, who help educate growers about best management practices in areas ranging from nutrient management to soil and water quality.

This information is not reported.

In 2009, there were no judicial or administrative findings that we have engaged in anti-competitive behavior or violated antitrust and monopoly legislation. Several private lawsuits alleging that we participated in a conspiracy to fix potash prices in the US were filed in 2009.  These legal actions are disclosed in our annual 10K for 2009.

No PotashCorp employees were dismissed or disciplined for corruption in 2009. We have a zero tolerance policy for employee corruption.

There were no instances in 2009 where contracts with business partners were not renewed due to violations related to corruption. No legal cases regarding corrupt practices were concluded against the company or our employees in 2009. No fines or non-monetary sanctions were levied against PotashCorp in 2009 related to accounting fraud or corruption.

PotashCorp has procedures in place for assessing and ensuring health and safety at most of the production and marketing stages of the product life cycle. Disposal is not an issue, since fertilizer, as a product, does not pose problems for disposal, and cannot be re-used or recycled after use. 

We had no instances of non-compliance, administrative or judicial sanctions, warnings or fines for the following areas:

• Regulations concerning the health and safety of our products
• Regulations for product information and labeling
• Regulations for marketing communications.

We are subject to feed and fertilizer labeling requirements in most jurisdictions where we make or sell products. Product labels are reviewed regularly to ensure they comply with all laws and regulations. Data specification sheets and a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) are required before new products are shipped. These documents inform customers about proper product handling and guaranteed analysis.

We meet product registration and labeling requirements in all markets. Labeling requirements (which are similar for each state in the US) generally require us to provide:

• Brand and product name
• Guaranteed analysis
• List of ingredients
• Directions for use and any warning or caution statement
• Name and address of manufacturer/guarantor
• Quantity statement
• Sources

State officials inspect labels and review samples of products to ensure they are manufactured and distributed according to specifications. Product labels are reviewed regularly to ensure they comply with all laws and regulations.

We had no instances of non-compliance, administrative or judicial sanctions, warnings or fines for the following areas:

• Regulations concerning the health and safety of our products
• Regulations for product information and labeling
• Regulations for marketing communications.

Our Fertilizer group finished first in product quality ratings. PotashCorp was judged to have the most reliable long-term supply compared to competitors by a margin ranging from 5 to 26 percentage points, and was considered the most reliable supplier by 63 percent of customers — more than all other companies combined. Reliable supply was considered an important issue for 88 percent of customers.

Our Feed group ranked highest in credit policies and pricing for the first time, and highest on every aspect of product quality, reliability of supply and customer service.

Our Industrial group continued to make gains in customer rankings of its pricing and credit policies while achieving top ranking in product quality, supply reliability and sales representative performance.

Our Purified Acid group rated lowest on pricing but highest on reliability of supply. It also ranked significantly higher than competitors in providing market information and communicating with customers.

We review all advertising for technical accuracy and legal compliance.

We had no instances of non-compliance, administrative or judicial sanctions, warnings or fines for the following areas:

• Regulations concerning the health and safety of our products
• Regulations for product information and labeling
• Regulations for marketing communications.

There were no instances of leaks, thefts or loss of customer data in 2009. No complaints were received concerning breaches of customer privacy.

We had no instances of non-compliance, administrative or judicial sanctions, warnings or fines for the following areas:

• Regulations concerning the health and safety of our products
• Regulations for product information and labeling
• Regulations for marketing communications.