EDITOR’S COMMENT
Addressing the
elephant in the room Rio Tinto took a bold step and embarked on an eight-month study to review its workplace culture. The study revealed uncomfortable findings relating to bullying, sexual harassment and racism across the global miner’s operations.
T
he findings have been compiled into a report, titled Report into Workplace Culture at Rio Tinto. While the document was commissioned by Rio Tinto, it is arguably worth using it as an indication of the harsh realities of the mining industry as a whole. Taking a look at South Africa’s mining industry as an example, incidents of sexual harassment and racism appear to be rife. During the Women in Mining Catch-up Forum in October 2021, some women who attended the event shared their experiences of harassment, discrimination and abuse of power at the hands of their male colleagues and superiors. Particularly deplorable was hearing how some women experienced harassment more than once at the same company. They also shed some light on how the incidents were dealt with after being reported. Regrettably, usually not much was done about reported incidents, as there were very few mentions of firm responses – such as disciplinary action – taken against alleged perpetrators. Sadly, these women largely had to continue working with their alleged perpetrators, who were of course their colleagues. Not all hope is lost, as one attendee mentioned that after reporting an incident of harassment, she was moved to a new team and no longer had to work with her alleged harasser. Even though she would see him around site, the harassment did not continue. Fellow attendees who were part of women in mining committees at their organisations also shed some light on how their companies dealt with issues relating to workplace harassment and discrimination. There were mentions of workshops to engage with male colleagues to discuss such problems. In addition, the workshops were also an opportunity for males to
EDITOR Dineo Phoshoko (dineo.phoshoko@3smedia.co.za) HEAD OF DESIGN Beren Bauermeister CHIEF SUB-EDITOR Tristan Snijders CONTRIBUTORS Mervin Munsamy PRODUCTION & CLIENT LIAISON MANAGER Antois-Leigh Nepgen GROUP SALES MANAGER Chilomia Van Wijk PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jacqueline Modise DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Nomsa Masina DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Asha Pursotham BOOKKEEPER Tonya Hebenton
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express their challenges and concerns relating to working and engaging with female colleagues.
Females a minority in the industry The gender dynamics in the mining industry create an environment in which women are constantly the minority, regardless of their area of expertise. This contributes to incidents of harassment, as women in mining usually report to a male superior, which can make it difficult to communicate challenges relating to harassment. Even where action is taken and incidents are addressed and dealt with accordingly, women still find themselves the minority in the industry. An article published in the Wall Street Journal mentioned that the mining industry globally struggled to hire women due to a lack of flexibility and harassment incidents. Theo Kokota, project technical assistant at engineering firm COENG, mentioned, “Gender stereotypes, company practices and structures favour men’s traditional roles and lifestyles over those of women.” This could be another contributing factor to women being in the minority in the mining industry. Harassment is just scratching the surface of the many findings in the Rio Tinto report. The in-depth report provides details of how the company’s employees experienced racism, sexual harassment and bullying based on gender, age group and nationality, among others. As uncomfortable as the findings may be, they will hopefully initiate a much-needed conversation that speaks to diversity, inclusion and inequalities in the mining industry. It would be a positive step forward for other mining companies to follow suit and conduct similar reviews of their own operations.
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Dineo
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