Current legislation on labour inclusion established a minimum of 1% hiring of people with disabilities, both in the public and private sectors. However, Codelco set its sights on more ambitious goals and aimed to achieve 2% labour inclusion by 2027.

Currently, El Teniente is among the four divisions of the Corporation that exceeded 1.1% of people with disabilities in their ranks and is developing actions to increase that percentage.

In the talk “Breaking barriers to inclusion,” Corporate Diversity project manager Iris Silva highlighted that “diversity within a team not only promotes an environment of respect for personal identity, but also encourages innovation and the generation of diverse solutions.”

During the presentation, various aspects related to disability were addressed, with the aim of dispelling myths and promoting a deeper understanding of this topic. In addition, to generate inclusive environments, some recommendations for good practices were highlighted, such as the use of the term “people with disabilities” and not using the terms “invalid” or “handicapped”; avoiding derogatory nicknames and always asking before offering help.

Violeta Gómez, a specialist remuneration analyst at the Human Resources Department of El Teniente, said that “the activity clarified doubts I had about some concepts. It is assumed that disability is something physical and this is not always the case, because there are different types of disability.”

“I think that was well exemplified, the types of disabilities, and having the clarity that at some point we are going to have a degree of disability throughout our lives,” added César Reyes, specialist consultant of the Directorate of Labor Relations.