Newmont mining sued by ex-oil and gas executive over site safety allegations

Allegations gold miner Newmont did not take site safety concerns seriously have been levelled by one of the company’s former executives.

Former Newmont Corp executive Rebecca Perrett is suing the company in Federal Court.

An experienced gas and mining executive is suing ASX-listed Newmont amid claims “major” concerns she had about safety at various sites around the world were not taken seriously, giving the impression the conglomerate was prioritising profit over safety.

Rebecca Perrett is fighting Newmont in the Federal Court for damages after alleging she was unfairly sacked in October last year, court filings seen by The Australian reveal.

Ms Perrett, who was the group executive of safety for the gold giant from 2019 until October, claimed in her civil case that she conducted a number of “safety culture (and) fatality risk management reviews” including in Western Australia, Mexico and Canada which identified safety concerns or “underreporting of significant safety incidents”.

A Newmont spokeswoman told The Australian safety is taken seriously in all of its operations.

“Newmont disputes the allegations raised by Ms Perrett and intends to vigorously defend itself in court in response to Ms Perrett’s claims,” she said.

“Newmont remains confident that it acted lawfully in respect of Ms Perrett’s employment with the company, as well as with respect to any allegations she has made about Newmont’s safety programs.”

Former Newmont executive Rebecca Perrett is fighting the mining giant in court.

Ms Perrett alleged after she raised concerns relating to site inspections and her direct manager changed from Newmont’s health, safety and security vice president Suzanne Retallack to health and safety group head Paul Dewar last June, she was told she would no longer be leading site visits from July.

And in about September, Newmont “informed the Applicant that FRM (fatality risk management) reviews in 2024 would be reduced from eight to four”, Ms Perrett claimed.

Ms Perrett alleged she told Newmont the reduction “reflected poor leadership” and “gave the appearance that the Respondent’s operational leadership team was prioritising operational profitability over the improvement of safety standards”.

As well, in relation to concerns she raised after a mine visit in Mexico and continued concerns expressed that Newmont’s performance assessment criteria were “potentially causing underreporting of significant safety incidents”, Ms Perrett claimed the mining company “appeared not to take (her) concerns expressed in the Second and Third Complaints seriously”.

Ms Perrett has also worked in senior health and safety roles at Shell, Rio Tinto and lluka, her LinkedIn profile says.

In its defence papers, Newmont denied the reduction of site visits reflected poor leadership and almost all of Ms Perrett’s allegations.

“Save as expressly admitted above, the Respondent denies each and every allegation set out in the SOC,” the mining company said.

It further denied Ms Perrett was removed from leading the site visits, and said Mr Dewar proposed other personnel could participate in the reviews to “assist in upskilling” others in health and safety functions.

Newmont is the world’s largest gold miner. Picture: Stephen Hilger

A reduction of the safety site visits would bring “Newmont in line with the industry norm of 3 yearly site-based reviews”, it said.

The publicly listed company also denied Ms Perrett’s claim she “exclusively” received positive performance reviews throughout her employment.

According to its defence, Ms Perrett received “constructive” feedback during her employment and was accused of having “short fallings in relation to team membership, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, and interactions with her peers and colleagues”.

Further, it said Mr Dewar and Ms Retallack, “accommodated and supported” Ms Perrett to meet family and carer’s responsibilities, and to work remotely and flexibly.

Ms Perrett has alleged adverse action was taken against her – including that her role was changed and she was fired – and alleged in her statement of claim she reported “major safety issues” at Newmont’s West Australian Boddington gold and copper mine in July 2022 to Ms Retallack.

“The findings included that employees were being subject to production pressure, and the site itself demonstrated signs of poor plant housekeeping and poor asset integrity,” the court documents say.

Newmont admitted Ms Parrett reported these concerns, according to its defence.

Later in her filings, Ms Perrett said: “the media was reporting that a worker at the Boddington site had recently been diagnosed with silicosis, a long-term lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust”.

Ms Perrett also alleged she attended Newmont’s Penasquito gold mine in Mexico in February last year and reported back to Ms Retallack and Mr Dewar that: “(Newmont’s) performance assessment criteria were potentially causing underreporting of significant safety incidents.”

She alleged she continued to raise with Newmont its performance assessment criteria were potentially causing underreporting of significant safety incidents.

Newmont agreed Ms Perrett raised those reports, but “does not know and does not admit those matters were raised in or around February 2023 as part of the FRM Review at the Penasquito site in Mexico”.

As well, in late June last year Ms Perrett said she identified “significant safety issues” at the Esperance gold mine in French Guiana, which Newmont has a 70 per cent interest in.

Newmont admitted Ms Perrett raised these concerns, but said it “does not know and does not admit whether the matters raised amounted to a breach of local legislation”.

And a month later, following a site visit Newmont’s Canada Porcupine gold site, Ms Perrett said she reported “safety issues”.

“The Applicant prepared a presentation in relation to this FRM Review, which relevantly included, by way of illustration, a photograph of four exhaust fans which were tagged in 2009 and 2010 as requiring new motors, but which had not been fixed, indicating that fumes were not being properly extracted from the plant,” court documents read.

Newmont admitted Ms Parrett reported these concerns, according to its defence.

In October last year, Ms Perrett alleged Mr Dewar invited a human resources staff member without notice to a meeting with her to discuss a “mutual severance” agreement.

Ms Perrett claimed she did not request mutual severance, and “to suggest that she had done so was to mischaracterise a joke that she had made to Mr Dewar many months earlier in June 2023.”

Newmont denied these allegations, and said Ms Perrett was informed verbally about the HR staff member and Mr Dewar believed Ms Perrett had genuinely requested a redundancy.

Through her lawyers, Ms Perrett declined to comment.

Originally published as Newmont mining sued by ex-oil and gas executive over site safety allegations