Task 10 ‒ Assign a consequence level
As explained previously, grievances relate to actual or potential incidents. Therefore, rating or assigning a consequence level to a grievance is the same as rating or assigning a consequence level to the actual or potential incident associated with the grievance.
Incident classification shall be conducted as per the Learning from Incident Standard. The site’s Learning from Incident Procedure should outline the incident classification process for all incidents, i.e. those with legal, financial, reputational, safety, social, and/or environmental consequences.
When assigning a consequence level to a grievance/incident, sites should look at the actual and potential consequence levels in all categories (i.e. legal, financial, reputational, safety, social, and environment). Near-misses and threats of protests are potential incidents.
A preliminary actual and potential consequence level is assigned as part of grievance screening (see 3B.2 Task 6). A final actual and potential consequence level should be assigned upon completion of the investigation process.
When assigning consequence levels, sites should follow the same approach to the one outlined in Section 3C in terms of risk and potential impact identification and use of the Social Consequence Matrix (see 3B.4 Tools) and the Anglo American Risk Matrix; there is no need, however, to look at likelihood.