November 21, 2024
A ‘progress report’ commissioned by Rio Tinto into its ‘Everyday Respect’ program revealed that workers are continuing to experience high rates of bullying and harassment.
Former Australian sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick conducted the progress report following her previous major report into culture across the global mining giant released in early 2022.
The update revealed that about half of workers across the business globally perceive improvements regarding harassment, bullying and racism – however the lived experience of workers is a different matter with survey results the same or worse than 2021 when survey data was last collected.
Key findings include:
- 7% of employees (16% of women) experienced sexual harassment in the last 12 months, with higher rates in the iron ore business and among FIFO and DIDO workers.
- 39% of employees experienced bullying in the last 12 months (50% of women), up from 31% three years ago. Rates were higher in the iron ore business (44%).
- 7% experienced racism, and indigenous Australians were the mostly likely group globally to experience racism at 39%.
Despite Rio’s training and programs aimed at changing attitudes, their survey data reveals continuing low trust in reporting bullying and harassment, due to fear of consequences or lack of action.
For example, just 13% of those who experienced sexual harassment reported it. Rio Tinto reported an improvement in the proportion of people who reported sexual harassment without negative consequence at 56%, up from 49% at 2021, but that’s still a very concerning figure by our book.
Of people who experienced bullying, 31% reported it and 33% of those reported negative consequences from reporting bullying.
A range of bullying behaviours were found to have become more widespread over the past three years including:
- Psychological harassment including intimidation and belittling or humiliating comments
- Limiting career progression despite strong performance
- Continued dismissal of your contributions
- Deliberately holding back information you need for getting your work done properly.
Rio Tinto doesn’t seem to have made much progress addressing the conditions that create poor cultural problems for contractors, notably the lack of job security and fear or retribution.
For example, they put forward ‘introducing co-branded shirts’ with contractors as a way they are addressing the power imbalance between employees and contractors in their iron ore business. And a quote from a ‘leader’ states the obvious:
“We’ve noticed some hesitancy about raising issues (among contractors). They fear that if they raise it [an issue about harmful behaviours], it won’t be taken seriously or addressed. They worry that [action won’t be taken] because they are not employed by Rio, their question is – will it go to their leadership? Will there be consequences for them from raising it?”
The data in this report suggests that there may well be negative consequences for raising concerns.
It is to be commended that Rio Tinto is taking steps to address chronic bullying, harassment and racism in their global business. Some practical measures are welcomed, such as more reporting options for harassment and improvements to camp amenities to make them safer.
However, programs to change attitudes are not enough if Rio Tinto doesn’t address very real issues of victimisation and power imbalances across its workforce. This is reflected in Rio’s continued hostility to collective bargaining with the production workforce in their iron ore business. Union representation provides workers with trusted support when issues such as bullying and harassment arise at work, which Rio workers clearly need.
Shane Roulstone from the Western Mine Workers Alliance said members in iron ore had noticed some improvements in workplace culture over the past couple of years, but serious issues remained. These include discouragement from speaking out about safety and bullying, lack of support for the increasing number of women managers in the business, and targeting of indigenous employees by some major contractors.
“It’s very concerning to see these numbers showing the continuing high rates of bullying and harassment across Rio Tinto,” said Shane.
“We are continuing to advocate for change for safer workplaces and a stronger voice for workers in the industry. Mistreatment of workers is an unacceptable price Rio Tinto’s sky-high profits. We encourage anyone concerned about what’s happening at their workplace to reach out to the union for support.”