Our people inspire us to keep evolving. We believe and invest in talent development and in fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. Safety is an obsession, and the health and well-being of our people are integral to that commitment.
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Number of employees
We have approximately 176,000 workers, including our own employees and permanent contractors, across 18 countries. Employees based in Brazil account for around 87%¹ of our workforce. The Company has a responsibility to care for these professionals, respect human rights, work to eliminate accidents, support skills development, foster an environment of open dialogue, and provide fair pay commensurate with the complexity of each role.
In every country where it operates, Vale complies with local labor laws and requires and monitors compliance with working hour limits as established by the International Labor Organization. It expects the same commitment from its business partners. This commitment is formalized in our Human Rights Policy.
¹ NOTE: Percentage based on data from the 2025 Annual Report: 57,045 employees based in Brazil.
Workforce
Workforce by gender
People with disabilities
2021
5.3%
2022
5.4%
2023
5.3%
2024
5.5%
Workforce by country
| Country | Direct employees | Contractors |
|---|---|---|
Brazil
|
55,663
|
100,601
|
Canada
|
7,262
|
1,879
|
Indonesia
|
92
|
0
|
Malaysia
|
394
|
2.338 |
Oman
|
598
|
4,688
|
Other
|
601
|
Not informed
|
Total
|
64,610
|
109,506
|
By business unit
Number of employees
|
2024
|
2023
|
2022
|
Iron Ore Solutions
|
43,601
|
43,090
|
41,816
|
Energy Transition Metals
|
13,664
|
15,606
|
13,318
|
Corporate
|
7,345
|
8,111
|
9,382
|
Total
|
64,610
|
66,807
|
64,516
|
Turnover rate
| Year | |
|---|---|
2020
|
10,7%
|
2021
|
8.2%
|
2022
|
7.1%
|
2023
|
8.8%
|
2024
|
8.5%
|
Our cultural journey
Together we are building the Vale we want to be.
We shape our history day by day with our partners, employees, customers, shareholders and society. Guided by our purpose, we deliver our strategy through strong values and behaviors. We continuously evolve, placing people at the center of our decisions. Throughout our cultural journey, we prioritize safety, learn from our mistakes and act with transparency and collaboration.
We believe that mining is essential to the world’s development. We only serve society when we generate prosperity for everyone while caring for the planet. Accordingly, we exist to improve life and transform the future. Together.
Since 2019, we have shared a commitment - and a sense of urgency - to transform our Company. Our cultural journey is constantly evolving and is built by each of us, every day.
To live our purpose every day and achieve our ambition, it is essential for each of us to embody the values and behaviors that define our culture. They are the foundation of the culture we are building - a culture that reflects who we are.
In 2025, we co-created the evolution of our cultural narrative with employees across the organization, marking an essential step toward the future we want to build. It is grounded in non-negotiable values that guide our decisions, priorities and the way we conduct our business: life matters most, act with integrity, value the people who build our company, results oriented, and respect our planet and society. These values are brought to life through behaviors that define how we tackle challenges, carry out our work and engage with our stakeholders. They are: an obsession with safety and risk management, act and lead with humility and respect, deliver superior results through planning and discipline, look outward with an entrepreneurial mindset, and engage in dialogue with society.
It is through this culture that we deliver on our strategic challenges and commitments, ensuring alignment between our purpose, decisions and practices while guiding our actions in an ethical, responsible and sustainable manner.
We also conducted a new employee engagement survey in 2025. We achieved a new participation record, with 83% of employees sharing their perspectives on culture, leadership, careers, well-being and belonging. The overall favorability score was 77%. The results identified opportunities for further progress and reinforced our commitment to continuous improvement.
How do Vale employees rate work-life balance?
Results from the Engagement Survey (2023–2025)
Vale’s Employee Engagement Survey assesses, among other topics, employees’ perceptions of mental health in the workplace. The results below show the favorability index, which represents the percentage of employees who responded "agree" or "strongly agree" to the survey statements, measured on a Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."
Survey conducted globally among Vale employees. It does not include Base Metals or third-party personnel.
Vale’s ambitions:
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benchmark in safety;
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best-in-class reliable operator;
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talent-driven organization;
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leader in sustainable mining;
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benchmark in creating and sharing value.
To support these ambitions, we have established the following key behaviors:
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obsession with safety and risk management;
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open and transparent dialogue;
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empowerment with accountability;
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sense of ownership;
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active listening and engagement with society.
An integrated plan informs our initiatives to scope out our organizational culture and core beliefs, including leadership development programs and a review of our organizational processes and systems. Cultural elements have also been integrated into the Vale Production System (VPS). Key performance indicators are used to gauge progress in strategic areas and to monitor processes in the coming years.
In 2021, we introduced Ecos Pulse, a survey designed to assess employee perceptions of our cultural transformation, enhance engagement, and measure the impact of changes. In 2023, more than 38,000 employees responded to the survey, offering their views on culture, leadership, careers, well-being, and belonging.
Progress on our cultural transformation
- Aspiration defined
- Review of key behaviors
- Initial leadership awareness-raising
- Cultural assessment
- Vale narrative revised and Purpose defined
- Leader development as role models
- Start of system and process review (D&I, Cultural Integration, VPS, People Management, etc)
- Influencer network created
- Vale Narrative communicated
- Manager engagement around Culture
- Senior leadership engagement around Purpose
- First results from Ecos Pulse survey
- Front-line leader engagement
- Engagement strategy
- Digital inclusion of operations
- Culture scale-up across operations
- Vale 100
- Purpose permeating our strategy - Vale 100
- Culture supporting the Vale of the Future
- Expanded digital inclusion
- Organization-wide development initiatives
- Front-line leader experience
- Deep-dive into Operations
Diversity, equity and inclusion
We strive to be an inclusive company that, through open and transparent dialogue, fosters an environment of respect and psychological safety, with equitable opportunities for growth and development for everyone. We believe that a diverse workforce is essential to building a more sustainable mining industry.
Since 2020, we have implemented foundational initiatives that are already delivering significant results. Continuously evaluating the progress we have made allows us to identify more precisely the challenges we still need to address. This learning has deepened our understanding of what it means to be a truly inclusive company, driving the ongoing improvement of our initiatives. In 2022, we took an important step forward by launching affirmative action initiatives that accelerated our journey toward a more diverse, equitable and inclusive Vale.
Vale’s Diversity and Inclusion Policy establishes six priorities (see the table below), but our efforts are not limited to these dimensions, as our broader goal is to become a truly inclusive company. Professional training programs, career development initiatives and training focused on preventing harassment, discrimination and prejudice are among the actions developed to support these priorities.
Photo: Vale Archive
Our priorities
Gender: Our commitment to increasing the representation of women from 13% to 26% by 2025 was achieved one year ahead of schedule, in 2024. We continue our journey to expand the representation of women in senior leadership positions globally and foster a diverse and inclusive workplace where equal opportunities are ensured and valued.
LGBTQIAP+: raise awareness of LGBTQIAP+ issues and reinforce Vale’s commitment to respecting sexual orientation and gender identity, regardless of personal beliefs and values.
Local talent: continuously increase the visibility, development and advancement of talent from regions and countries that are underrepresented in the Company’s leadership positions.
Ethnic-racial: achieve 40% representation of Black professionals in leadership positions in Brazil by 2026. Raise employees’ awareness of ethnic and racial issues and their impact on workplace relationships.
People with disabilities: Foster the inclusion of professionals with disabilities through training, physical accessibility and digital accessibility.
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*Vale against harassment: Increase employees’ awareness and engagement to foster a safe workplace where everyone has physical and psychological safety and opportunities to develop their potential.
Results:
- An additional 9,000 women since December 2019
- We doubled the representation of women, from 13% in 2019 to 28.2% in 2025
- Women in leadership positions: 27.5%
- Women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) roles: 32.7%
- Women in operational positions (excluding administrative roles): 24.7%
- Women in senior leadership positions (director level and above): 23.1%
- Women in executive leadership positions (general manager level and above): 25.3%
- Women in revenue-generating management positions: 25.6%
- Black people in leadership positions (coordinator level and above, in Brazil): 45.1%*
- 676 operational trainees developed at our operational sites, strengthening the local workforce, of whom 87% were hired
- 124,000 hours of training and awareness-building across a range of diversity, equity and inclusion topics
*Note: The 45.1% figure refers to all Vale leadership positions, based on the current job architecture. For the purpose of tracking its racial representation target internally, Vale uses a methodological approach that excludes the effects of nominal adjustments resulting from the 2025 job structure review (Y career path) and covers only the Iron Ore Solutions operations in Brazil, resulting in a figure of 39.8%.
Our actions and the progress reflected in our metrics demonstrate that we are moving forward, but we recognize that gaps remain and we still have a long way to go in promoting equity and putting inclusion into practice. The following are some of the key initiatives in recent years that have contributed to our progress:
- In 2019, we set a goal to double the representation of women in Vale’s workforce, from 13% to 26%. We achieved this goal in 2024, one year ahead of schedule, demonstrating that it is entirely possible to attract and hire women for roles that have historically been viewed as male-dominated.
- We implemented intentional hiring initiatives for women engineers, analysts and managers, and launched a Vocational Training Program that, in 2022, offered more than 1,200 positions exclusively for women in operational roles.
- To encourage dialogue and the exchange of ideas, we have employee resource groups for women, racial equity, people with disabilities and LGBTQIAP+ employees.
- We joined the Movement for Racial Equity (Mover), a joint initiative with 46 other companies to expand opportunities for Black people, reduce inequality and combat structural racism in the labor market;
- We joined the Racial Equity Promotion Pact, an initiative to implement Brazil’s Racial ESG Protocol, and launched the Racial Literacy Development Track;
- We reached 5.54% representation of employees with disabilities across the Company. In addition, 350 people benefited from the Empowering Talented People with Disabilities Program, which aims to empower participants by strengthening their confidence in their abilities and potential while encouraging new ways of thinking and addressing challenges.;
- We launched a Global Trainee Program that prioritizes talent diversity. Of the 113 trainees selected in Brazil in 2022, 67% were women and 71% self-identified as Black or mixed race. In 2023, the program intentionally prioritized local talent from the states of Pará and Maranhão, with 94% of positions filled by professionals native to those states.
- In 2022, we launched affirmative action initiatives, including the Empowering Black Talents Program, the Empowering Talented People with Disabilities Program and the Career Acceleration Program for Black women in general, and the Boost Program for Black women from socially vulnerable communities.;
- We strengthened our efforts to combat harassment, prejudice and discrimination through initiatives such as the “No to Harassment” webpage, which provides information on the topic, expansion of our support channel for employees experiencing sexual harassment or discrimination, and the launch in 2022 of the “React—Combating Sexual Harassment in the Workplace” training program.
- In 2022, we launched the Pará and Maranhão Development Program, which aims to develop and attract local talent from the states of Pará and Maranhão. As this program expanded and became more established, it evolved into the Northern Brazil People Strategy in 2025. Key initiatives implemented in 2024 included expanding the program to Maranhão, offering preferential hiring opportunities for local talent in both states, implementing talent identification, development and performance acceleration programs, providing leadership mentoring, and strengthening the internal local talent indicators dashboard to give leaders readier access to key information on workforce management and career development for this group. We also launched the Stand Out initiative, offered both in person and online, to provide guidance on resume preparation and tips for participating in recruitment processes for members of the community. In its first year, approximately 2,000 people participated in the initiative.
Commitments and Targets
Women in the workforce:
- Result as of December 2025: 28.2%
Women in senior leadership:
- Result as of December 2025: 23.1%
Black leadership:
- Result as of December 2025: 45.1%
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Greater transparency
Remuneration
Our remuneration practices are supported by a structured governance framework based on technical criteria, performance and market alignment, with ongoing monitoring of internal equity. Vale complies with the local minimum wage established by law and pays 100% of its employees a living wage, according to the latest external assessment conducted by consulting firm BSR. This assessment measures the gap between the lowest remuneration paid in each Vale location and the living wage for that location. It was conducted using the WageIndicator benchmark, in alignment with the principles of the UN Global Compact Network Brazil’s Living Wage Movement, part of its Ambition 2030 initiative.
With regard to gender pay analysis, we compare average annual remuneration, including fixed pay, variable pay and any comparable payments, using internationally recognized methodologies and applicable national legislation. The comparison between 2024 and 2025 showed the following results: (i) among senior leadership, the ratio of women’s to men’s remuneration declined from 94% to 89%; (ii) among middle management, the ratio remained stable at 87%; and (iii) among staff positions, the ratio changed from 103% to 101%. The latter group continues to show no significant gender-based differences and remains the most balanced level in terms of gender pay, representing 88% of our workforce.
Photo: Vale Archive
Explanatory note
Paying a living wage means providing the means for an individual/family to acquire the goods and services necessary to achieve a basic and dignified standard of living (food, housing, education, transportation, leisure, culture, etc.) in line with the social and cultural expectations of the community and/or country where the individual is located.
Our remuneration practices are also aligned with the complexity and scale of our operations, which require management to have extensive business and market knowledge, as well as a level of commitment consistent with the responsibilities of our employees, management and Executive Committee.
All Vale employees are entitled to: (i) fixed monthly remuneration according to their position, (ii) benefits and (iii) profit sharing, based on a scorecard with targets aligned with the Company’s strategic objectives and paid in cash.
In addition, employees in leadership positions are eligible for share-based compensation through our Matching Program and Vale Shares Program. The Matching Program is a long-term variable compensation incentive in the form of Restricted Shares, based on the Company’s expected performance as reflected in its market value and share price, with a three-year vesting period. It is offered starting at the supervisor level, including Executive Committee members and non-statutory officers, and participation is mandatory for the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice Presidents.
The Vale Shares Program is a long-term variable compensation plan in the form of Performance Shares, also with three-year performance cycles, offered starting at the senior manager level, including Executive Committee members and non-statutory officers. Awards are linked to relative Total Shareholder Return compared with a peer group of companies, as well as absolute performance against ESG and ROIC metrics.
Photo: Vale Archive
Corporate Citizenship Program
In Brazil, Vale participates in the Corporate Citizenship Program, which entitles employees to extended maternity and paternity leave. Under the maternity leave policy, the program provides an additional 60 consecutive days immediately following the mandatory four-month leave period, for a total of up to 180 days of maternity leave.
Under the paternity leave policy, the Corporate Citizenship Program provides a total of 20 days of leave. However, to encourage responsible fatherhood, involve fathers in caregiving from the very beginning of their child’s life and contribute to gender equality, Vale has voluntarily established, through its Collective Bargaining Agreement, a total paternity leave period of 30 days.
At the end of this page, you will find more information about leave policies in the countries where Vale operates.
In addition to the Corporate Citizenship Program, and in line with our commitment to valuing the people who make our company an inclusive, diverse workplace with gender equality, Vale has introduced dedicated lactation rooms to support employees who are breastfeeding. The rooms are equipped with breast milk expression systems at selected locations in Brazil.
These spaces were designed to provide a welcoming environment where breastfeeding employees can express and safely store their breast milk during the workday. This initiative aims to support mothers returning from maternity leave and encourage continued breastfeeding until children reach two years of age, in line with United Nations recommendations.
Indigenous healthcare services
Through agreements with Indigenous Peoples, Vale provides complementary Indigenous healthcare services, offering access to elective care, urgent care, emergency care and dental services through its accredited provider network. The ethnic groups covered by these agreements may request services through a designated focal point, based on their needs.
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Learning and development
At Vale, we believe that continuous learning is a competitive advantage and one of the pillars of our transformation. We promote people development through the exchange of experiences, hands-on learning and openness to new ideas—always aligned with the expected behaviors set out in the Vale Production System (VPS).
Our learning ecosystem, Valer, brings together internal and external partners, learning facilitators and digital platforms to support employees’ growth and create shared value for society. Learning solutions are designed based on our business strategy and tailored to the technical, behavioral and functional needs of different audiences.
Valer’s activities are organized around five audience segments: all employees, future employees, operational technicians, specialists and leaders. For each group, we offer learning journeys that extend beyond the classroom, encouraging the practical application of knowledge and preparing our workforce for current and future challenges.
At Vale, we are evolving the way we develop our people. We aim to provide high-quality technical training and promote social development to help transform the communities where we operate.
As well as continuously improving the management and execution of technical training, we remain committed to supporting our operations while building the capabilities needed to deliver Vale’s growth projects.
As part of this journey, integrated technical and operational learning journeys and entry programs have become strategic pillars for the technical and behavioral development of our professionals.
Integrated learning journeys provide comprehensive training aligned with the Company’s operational needs, covering technical and safety content as well as behavioral competencies. They are structured into “Qualification for the Role” and “Qualification for Practice” categories, and also include periodic renewal of initial training. The initiative is designed not only to reduce accidents, but also to help Vale achieve excellence in safety and operational performance across the Company.
Through integrated learning pathways, robust training is delivered, aligned with real business needs, covering technical and safety content as well as behavioral competencies.
Integrated learning journeys bring together learning processes for technical and operational employees. Their main objectives are to strengthen learning management and address development gaps, establish a unified approach to technical training, and ensure that employees perform their duties safely.
To implement the program throughout the technical and operational workforce, Vale established a prioritization strategy based on safety events, focusing on the following job groups: mechanics, equipment operators, conveyor maintenance technicians, electricians and welders. Over the past three years, approximately 15,000 employees have completed the program, accounting for more than 100,000 course enrollments, or an average of approximately seven courses per employee.
Vale also offers engineering trainee and undergraduate and technical internship programs, as well as its entry programs - the Vocational Training Program and the Apprenticeship Program - which serve as the Company’s primary recruitment pathways. These programs provide professional learning opportunities for young people in the communities where Vale operates, contributing to their personal development, strengthening Vale’s talent pipeline, and supporting their successful entry into the workforce.
The Vocational Training Program is designed to develop technical talent for operational roles, directly supporting the sustainability of Vale’s operations while reinforcing its culture of safety and excellence. Its main objectives are to develop a skilled workforce, promote social inclusion and diversity, and strengthen the Company’s reputation in local communities by creating meaningful opportunities for employment, income generation, and professional development.
The Apprenticeship Program, in turn, serves as a strategic initiative for the productive inclusion of young people, delivering meaningful social impact. Developed in partnership with local governments, educational institutions and social organizations, the program reinforces Vale’s commitment to equity and sustainable development through initiatives such as prioritizing positions for women and young people in vulnerable situations.
Over the past three years, more than 5,000 young people have participated in Vale’s entry programs, significantly expanding the Company’s social impact in local communities with a focus on diversity and employability.
The Leadership Development Journey is designed to prepare leaders to perform in alignment with Vale’s strategy, strengthening the organizational culture and enhancing delivery capabilities at every level.
Each leadership level presents its own challenges and complexities. For this reason, the journey has been tailored for employees on the path to their first leadership role, as well as coordinators, managers, general managers, directors and Executive Committee members.
The learning architecture follows the 70–20–10 model, combining hands-on experience, interaction and formal learning.
The journey is built around Vale’s cultural narrative and the development of the behavioral and technical competencies leaders need in order to deliver on the Vale 2030 strategy.
In 2025, the pilot program included 670 participants in a hybrid format in five Brazilian states (Pará, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo), achieving high levels of participant engagement.
Performance evaluation is one stage of the People Development Cycle, an annual process that maps each employee’s development journey by incorporating the development conversations and ongoing feedback that take place throughout the year. The evaluations consider both employees’ results and how effectively they demonstrated our key behaviors.
Each employee’s individual results are based on the individual goals established jointly with their leader. These goals must be aligned with the strategic objectives of the business or area and guided by collective goals as well as specific projects, initiatives and process improvements.
The process is documented in a system, ensuring transparency and traceability. It is recommended that employee evaluations be reviewed collectively, depending on the area’s strategy. It is important to note that peer calibration of employee performance evaluations is recommended, depending on the area’s strategy. For leaders and more senior employees, evaluations are mandatorily reviewed by a committee, which analyzes and discusses performance and makes collective decisions. This process reinforces the Company’s commitment to meritocracy and the continuous development of its employees.
Vale’s succession planning process identifies, develops and prepares talent to take on leadership positions in the future. Developing qualified successors who are able to grow, develop and learn from experience strengthens our leadership pipeline and brings us closer to our ambition of leading value creation in mining in an ethical and sustainable way and becoming one of the world’s top three mining companies by market value.
To support this objective, in 2019 we established the Global Talent Review to identify and develop successors not only for executive director positions, but also for critical global leadership roles that have a significant impact on creating or enabling value, thereby strengthening our ambition. Through this process, we identify employees’ level of readiness, support their development and prepare them to potentially assume more complex positions in the short, medium and long term.
In 2025, 100% of our critical positions had at least one identified successor and 75% had successors identified for the short, medium and long term. Diversity and inclusion are also incorporated into the process: out of the 107 critical positions mapped, 76% had at least one woman identified as a successor and 76% had at least one non-White successor, helping to ensure a diverse leadership pipeline.
The People and Remuneration Committee oversees succession planning for senior leadership through recurring meetings, with updates provided to the Board of Directors.
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Talent attraction
Vale’s talent attraction strategy was designed to support the Company’s ambition of building a talent-driven organization while advancing its goals of becoming more sustainable, efficient and innovative. It also seeks to prepare Vale to address the challenge of talent scarcity by making the Company more attractive to and sought after by new generations.
Talent attraction is one of the key pillars of Vale’s commitment to developing the communities where it operates, particularly in the states of Pará and Maranhão. For the second consecutive year, the Trainee Program was designed and implemented with a focus on developing local professionals from these regions, in line with the Company’s ambition to contribute to community development and expand opportunities.
Throughout 2025, Vale also developed an employer attractiveness plan that included a range of initiatives, such as targeted outreach campaigns, labor market intelligence and proactive mapping of regional talent, with the goal of increasing the visibility and hiring of local professionals for business opportunities. As a result of this strategy, more than 9,000 positions in Brazil were filled by professionals with high school, technical and university qualifications from 25 states and municipalities across the country.
Photo: Vale Archive
As part of this effort, we believe that internal opportunities enable our employees to grow and advance in their careers. In 2025, 1,495 employees were selected for internal positions, reflecting our ongoing investment in professional development and our commitment to recognizing the people who help build our company. We also implemented an initiative to provide a people-centered approach to redeploying employees affected by organizational changes, combining care, transparency and career guidance.
Known as Charting New Paths, this program achieved an internal redeployment rate of 91% across company teams. It included one-on-one mentoring, customized training, more flexible eligibility criteria and active support throughout the recruitment process, ensuring an inclusive experience tailored to each employee.
Our goal is to leave a lasting educational, economic and social development legacy in the communities where we operate. Through our Apprenticeship, Vocational Training, Internship, Trainee and Workforce Readiness programs, we contributed to the development of 3,100 people in 2025. We implemented a technical training strategy to strengthen our entry-level programs in partnership with public institutions and civil society organizations, prioritizing regions facing social challenges and shortages of skilled labor.
In 2025, 1,513 young people participated in the Apprenticeship Program, 60% of whom were enrolled in technical courses, and 22% were hired after completing the program. Participants also received biopsychosocial support, with a focus on including young people in vulnerable situations. The Trainee Program, aimed at developing talent from Pará and Maranhão, had 48% female participants and 77% of participants self-identified as Black. During the year, the program received a “Ser Humano” (“Human Being”) award from the Pará chapter of the Brazilian Human Resources Association and a People Management award from the Brazilian Congress on Training and Development. We also launched the Engineering Trainee Program, which attracted 28,000 applicants for 25 positions, with women representing 68% of those selected. The program includes around 50 development experiences, including mentoring, job rotation, English language acceleration and scientific immersion, to prepare professionals for port and railroad operations in Maranhão, Pará, Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais.
More than 1,500 interns participated in the Internship Program in 2025, up around 25% from 2024, and 16% were hired after completing the initiative. Meanwhile, the Workforce Readiness Program trained 138 participants through short courses, including for boilermaker and warehouse clerk positions, in the states of Pará and Rio de Janeiro.
Non-salary employee benefits
Benefits and well-being initiatives are a fundamental part of our employee value proposition. We strive to offer solutions that support holistic well-being—physical, mental, emotional, social and financial—to attract, engage and care for our people.
The benefits policy adopted by Vale and its subsidiaries is aligned with this strategy and takes into account local conditions, market practices and applicable legislation. Because we believe these solutions are essential to helping people live and work in a healthier, more balanced and more sustainable way, we have developed a Well-Being Program that supports employees through different stages of life, contributing to a better quality of life and greater personal and professional fulfillment.
In Brazil, Vale structures its benefits and programs around four pillars: physical, emotional, financial, and social and family well-being. This approach is supported by a portfolio of benefits and practical initiatives designed to assist employees and their families, as described below.
Learn more about each pillar:
The initiatives under the Physical pillar are designed to support employees through a comprehensive approach to preventive and predictive healthcare, promoting productive longevity while reducing health-related and workplace risks.
The Financial pillar initiatives help employees organize their finances in both the short and long term while building financial literacy to encourage thoughtful money management, personal budgeting and awareness of financial scams and gambling. These initiatives support employees in making better financial decisions and strengthening their financial security. Employees also have access to free one-on-one consultations with financial planning and retirement specialists.
Our Social and Family pillar is designed to strengthen a culture of care and equity through structured initiatives that support employees and their families.
The benefits and programs offered under the Emotional pillar are designed to support employees and their dependents through difficult situations while strengthening relationships built on trust, psychological safety and emotional well-being.
Global
For employees based outside Brazil, the following benefits are offered:
Maternity and paternity leave in the countries where Vale operates
Union relations
Vale maintains positive relationships with labor unions in every country where it operates and seeks to resolve conflicts through regular meetings with representatives of these organizations. Collective bargaining is an ongoing practice, based on dialogue with labor unions and training for company leaders on labor relations issues.
Freedom of association is respected, and our approach is guided by Vale’s Code of Conduct, local labor laws, the eight Fundamental Conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the guidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Where local legislation in a country in which we operate restricts this right, we maintain contact with equivalent worker representative organizations.
Photo: Vale Archive
We have not had a strike involving our employees in Brazil since 1990. The number of disputes between the Company and labor unions has declined in recent years. The number of employees who voluntarily belong to labor unions has increased: in Brazil, 100% of employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements involving 12 labor unions, and more than 15,000 are voluntary members of the labor unions that represent them. Across all the countries where Vale operates, 95% of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
Since 2005, employees have elected, through direct voting, one regular member of the Board of Directors and an alternate member.
Vale labor relations representatives at different levels meet weekly with labor union representatives to discuss routine matters and strengthen social dialogue.
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Legal working hours in the countries where Vale operates
¹ Explanatory note
May reach up to 48 hours per week under a compensatory work schedule.
² Explanatory note
May exceed this limit provided that the average over a three-week period does not exceed 48 hours per week.
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