By Cameron Myles
Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group has mounted an angry defence after being accused of withholding documents related to alleged sexual harassment at its Pilbara mines.
WorkSafe on Wednesday revealed it had moved to prosecute the miner, charging it with 34 counts of refusing or failing to comply with a requirement to provide documents to an inspector within a specified period without a reasonable excuse.
Fortescue has been accused of failing to comply with a requirement to provide documents relating to alleged sexual harassment incidents.Credit: Bloomberg
The workplace safety regulator said the documents related to alleged sexual harassment at three of Fortescue’s Pilbara sites; Christmas Creek, Solomon and Cloudbreak.
“The Work Health and Safety Act 2022 gives WorkSafe inspectors the right to request that documentation be received within a specified time period unless the person in charge of the business or undertaking has a reasonable excuse for not supplying the documents,” a statement said.
The announcement on Wednesday appeared to blindside the company, with a spokesperson claiming Fortescue had aimed to work constructively with WorkSafe and was “confused by WorkSafe choosing to issue a media release without notifying us”.
The spokesperson said sexual harassment had no place at the miner, which took its responsibility to provide a safe and respectful workplace for all team members seriously.
However, in an updated statement on Thursday afternoon, a company spokesperson said Fortescue would “not be pushed into breaking the law or releasing the private information of our team mates without their knowledge or consent”.
“There is no legal basis for the regulator to demand this information so we are understandably very cautious, when asked to release private and personal records. We have never refused to comply,” the statement read.
“We have robust processes for our people to raise concerns in a confidential and respectful manner.
“All reported cases are thoroughly investigated and, where substantiated, we take swift action to address any behaviour that is not acceptable to Fortescue or in the community, which has included termination.”
The spokesperson said Fortescue had “always worked constructively with the regulator” over a six-month period and had asked the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety for the legal basis for its notices.
“They failed to do so,” the statement read.
Western Australia’s mining industry was forced to confront a torrid record of sexual harassment as part of a parliamentary inquiry which culminated in the Enough is Enough: Sexual harassment against women in the FIFO mining industry report, tabled last year.
The report was the result of months of testimony from victims and companies, and lashed big resources organisations for “corporate failure”, along with DMIRS for failing to realised the scope of the problem.
At the time, the committee chair, Liberal MP Libby Mettam, said the inquiry’s findings represented “a failure of the industry to protect its workers” and raised questions about why the government wasn’t better across the issue.
“All companies told us that staff safety was their highest priority. The level of sexual harassment in their companies indicates that this was not the case,” the report said.
“The failure of companies to understand what was happening in their workplaces must be seen as a sign of corporate failure.
“It was clear that company processes were often ineffective; a more honest reading could suggest they were more focused on protecting companies and their reputations than serving the best interests of people who had been harassed.”
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the matter should run its course through the courts, but pointed to toughened-up legislation passed by the state government to “require companies to be more forthcoming and stronger in their actions”.
“All I’d say is you need to have a very strong approach to these issues in the workplace, and that’s what we support and that’s what our laws support,” he said.
“That’s why we changed the law. We put in place a new WorkSafe legislation two years ago to ensure that WorkSafe could be more proactive.”
with Hamish Hastie
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