A Rio Tinto report into workplace culture finding unacceptable and systemic bullying, sexism and racism is shocking but would not surprise workers, the Western Mineworkers Alliance said today.
\nThe report by Elizabeth Broderick found that of all Rio Tinto\u2019s divisions globally, bullying and sexual harassment were highest in its iron ore division, in Western Australia\u2019s Pilbara region. More than half of Rio Tinto\u2019s iron ore employees reported experiencing bullying and one third of women in iron ore experienced sexual harassment.
\nMining and Energy Union President Tony Maher said that Rio Tinto\u2019s toxic workplace culture had been exacerbated by the mining multinational\u2019s push to deunionise in the 1990s and move workers onto individual contracts.
\n\u201cRio Tinto became anti-union zealots with their so-called \u2018direct engagement\u2019 approach. But crushing union presence on their sites removed a collective voice and important layer of protection for workers.
\n\u201cIt meant workers were dependent on the approval of their immediate supervisor to get a pay rise or even to keep their job, leading to sycophancy, nepotism and fear of raising issues like bullying and harassment. Direct engagement has left a damaging legacy for Rio Tinto\u2019s workplace culture.\u201d
\nAustralian Workers Union National Secretary Dan Walton said the findings in Broderick report echoed those in a union survey of WA iron ore miners\u2019 experiences of sexual harassment and assault undertaken last year. The WMWA raised concerns from the survey during last year\u2019s WA parliamentary inquiry into sexual harassment in the FIFO mining industry.
\nThe WMWA told that inquiry that its extensive industry survey had found:
\n\u00b7 One in five women said they had experienced physical acts of sexual assaults.
\n\u00b7 One in five women said they had been explicitly or implicitly offered career advancement or benefits in return for sexual favours.
\n\u00b7 One in three women said they had received requests for sexual favours, and repeated invitations to engage in sexual relationships.
\n\u201cOur members spoke loud and clear about unacceptable behaviour on site and their lack of trust in managers and supervisors to take action. Women told us about being threatened with \u2018blacklisting\u2019 if they pursued complaints of sexual harassment.
\n\u201cRio Tinto has an opportunity now to take real action to address its workplace culture. Feel-good management training is not enough. Managers and supervisors must be held to account and workers must be supported to organise collectively through their unions to build confidence and give them a voice to deal with issues like bullying and harassment. It\u2019s a positive step that Rio Tinto has released this report and we are ready to work collaboratively to improve the working lives of our members and all mineworkers.\u201d
\nThe Western Mineworkers Alliance is a joint venture by the Australian Workers Union and Mining and Energy Union to represent Pilbara iron ore workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Rio Tinto report into workplace culture finding unacceptable and systemic bullying, sexism and racism is shocking but would not surprise workers, the Western Mineworkers Alliance said today. The report by Elizabeth Broderick found that of all Rio Tinto\u2019s divisions globally, bullying and sexual harassment were highest in its iron ore division, in Western Australia\u2019s … Continue reading “Rio Tinto's toxic workplace culture a legacy of anti-union zealotry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}