Bullying, sexual harassment and racism are common throughout Rio Tinto, according to a review of the global miner’s workplace culture conducted by Australia’s former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.
Rio Tinto’s chief executive, Jakob Stausholm, said the findings were “deeply disturbing” and he promised the company would implement all 26 recommendations Broderick made to improve its culture.
“I offer my heartfelt apology to every team member, past or present, who has suffered as a result of these behaviours,” he said on Tuesday. “This is not the kind of company we want to be.”
Broderick and her team received survey responses from 10,000 of Rio’s 45,000 employees and conducted 109 “group listening sessions” around the world. There were also 85 confidential one-on-one meetings.
Broderick said the majority of women who responded experienced “everyday sexism” such as being left out of meetings, not being provided with a women’s toilet or “even being asked to take notes, get coffee, or even do a colleague’s washing” while 21 women reported an actual or attempted rape or sexual assault in the past five years.
“Bullying is systemic, experienced by almost half of the survey respondents,” she said in the report released by Rio on Tuesday.
“Sexual harassment and everyday sexism occur at unacceptable rates. Racism is common across a number of areas.”
Broderick said everyday sexism was damaging in its own right but also “creates fertile ground for more serious misconduct, such as sexual harassment and sexual assault”.
Sexual harassment “was a significant organisational challenge”, she said, experienced by 43% of women working at fly-in fly-out (Fifo) and drive-in drive-out mine sites and 28% of women across the entire company.
“Women at Fifo worksites spoke of eating alone in their room to avoid harassment in the dining hall and the gym; of avoiding being out after dark; of bad lighting and poor security; and of harassing and even threatening behaviour from male colleagues when they were walking to their accommodation after work,” Broderick said.
“Women also spoke of the lack of consequences when they reported these incidents; and of having to carry the burden of managing the situation themselves, rather than receiving support from management or human resources.”
Racism was also rife, with 39.8% of men who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiencing it in the past five years. Only 12.4% of men who do not identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experienced racism in the past five years.
More than a third of both men and women working for the company in South Africa experienced racism. “As one employee commented ‘Rio is a Caucasian oriented company,’” Broderick said.
The survey found that 48.4% of employees experienced bullying – 53% of women and 47% of men. “Employees described expectations that they should ‘toughen up’ for ‘life in a global miner,’” Broderick said.
She said LGBTIQ+ employees also experienced “significantly elevated rates of bullying, sexual harassment and racism”.
“Overall, their comments suggest that the same hyper-masculine norms and culture that can fuel everyday sexism and sexual harassment can also fuel heterosexism, making the inclusion and safety of employees who identify as LGBTIQ+ a priority in any cultural reform,” she said.
She said Rio needed to adopt the same approach to psychological safety as it does towards physical safety, where the company “recognises that workplaces cannot be free from injury or critical incidents if employees do not feel confident to report unsafe practices or risks”.
“The project revealed that this confidence is not common amongst Rio Tinto employees for complex and sensitive interpersonal issues such as sexual harassment, racism and bullying,” she said.
“Similarly, employees participating in the listening sessions described a ‘culture of silence’ and negative impacts from reporting; of a lack of confidentiality; and of the subject of complaints being protected and even rewarded.”
One participant said they still feared the person who bullied them, even though they had left Rio.
“The culture of the team was really rotten to the core while he was leader,” they said. “Once that person starts firing your colleagues for speaking out, they have a level of power over you.”
Broderick commended Rio for making cultural changes over the past 12 months, but warned that the company was “only at an early stage along this path”. She said staff were confident Rio could do better.
“In my interactions with the Rio Tinto leadership team, I have observed a strong desire for transformational change, as well as to make positive contributions to the societal shifts that we need to see.
“There is clear recognition, however, that new approaches are needed to solve these issues.”
A separate parliamentary inquiry in WA is examining sexual harassment at fly-in-fly-out mining sites. Tuesday’s report follows turmoil among the top ranks of Rio after it blew up culturally significant 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge, in the Pilbara, in order to mine more iron ore.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
