Oilsands company also makes adjustments to workers' pay, incentives
The year 2023 is the safest year in Suncor’s history, according to its chief executive officer.
“We had no life-altering or life-threatening injuries for the first time since 2015,” said company CEO Rich Kruger at the company’s post-earnings conference, according to a report from The Canadian Press.
“We had a nearly 50 per cent reduction in lost-time incidents year-over-year and we had our best-ever recordable incident rate in the downstream and our second-best-ever in the upstream.”
Deaths at Suncor sites
Back in 2022, then Suncor interim CEO Kris Smith said the company had to start putting solutions in place to address workplace safety problems.
"We completed an independent safety assessment last year, and we're clear on what we need to do to improve our safety performance," Kris Smith said during his first quarterly conference call with analysts since assuming his new role, reported CBC. "We do not need more diagnosis, but what we do need to do is execute."
Smith temporarily held the position following the resignation of previous CEO Mark Little, who left his chief executive and president posts after a worker died at a Suncor worksite. On July 7, 2022, a 26-year-old worker died after being struck by equipment at Suncor’s Base Mine in Alberta.
Since 2014, 13 employees or contractors have died at Suncor sites, the Edmonton Journal previously noted in January 2023. Between 2014 and 2022, Suncor had at least 12 workplace deaths at its sites, more than all the rest of its oilsands peers combined, according to The Canadian Press’s report posted on Global News.
Adjustments to workers’ compensation
Suncor has also made changes to how it computes workers’ compensation, according to a Yahoo Finance report.
In the second half of 2023, the company implemented a new “employee performance evaluation system,” said Kruger.
“[It’s] designed to evaluate an individual’s performance based on their impact, versus their effort, or the activity behind their work,” he said in the report, noting this will be linked to base salary increases and annual bonus.
Suncor also plans to simplify its annual incentive program for all employees in 2024. "We win and lose as a team," Kruger said.
Kruger is also deploying a growing fleet of 400-ton autonomous mining trucks capable of displacing nearly two human-driven third-party vehicles, according to Yahoo Finance.
Suncor currently has 45 autonomous ultra-class trucks working at its Base Plant mine. It is looking to deploy 91 by the end of this year.
No mention of further layoffs at Suncor
Suncor also said it booked its best-ever oilsands production numbers in the last three months of 2023.
This is dispute the company reducing its workforce headcount.
“We did this through the elimination of work that was judged to be low priority or simply unaffordable,” he said on Thursday. “We spent $275 million in severance cost to achieve a $450 million annual savings starting this year, $50 million above our target.”
Since holding the CEO post in 2023, Kruger has implemented a number of changes at Suncor. These included reducing the company’s employee headcount by 20 per cent, or 1,500 people, in order to eliminate unnecessary or “unaffordable” work, according to The Canadian Press.
Suncor management did not discuss further job cuts during the conference, according to Yahoo Finance.
