[Lawyers for Women Who Claimed Sexual Harassment at Australian Mining Sites File Class Action Lawsuits
Lawyers for women who claim they’ve been sexually harassed while working for global mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto say they’ve been inundated with emails since filing two class action cases in an Australian court. The separate lawsuits, which were filed in the Federal Court in Sydney and revealed Wednesday by law firm JGA Saddler, alleges widespread and systematic sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the two companies’ worksites over the last two decades.
The lawsuit claims women had been urinated on and groped, and that many had been afraid to speak out for fear of workplace reprisal. The law firm has chosen not to name the lead applicants for fear of retaliation.
The lead applicant in the BHP case worked for the mining company as a driver of water trucks and dump trucks at sites in the states of Queensland and New South Wales. She alleges a BHP contractor urinated on her when she rebuffed his advances, which came after “repeated sexual approaches and propositions.”
The woman said she made a complaint about him but was never contacted and her contract was ended. “There have been times I haven’t reported an incident for fear of what might happen to my career, my job and my personal safety,” she said.
The lead applicant in the Rio Tinto case worked for the firm as a fly-in fly-out security guard assigned to the company’s mine sites in Western Australia. She told lawyers that inappropriate comments of a sexual nature were made weekly, and every month or so, colleagues would touch her inappropriately by rubbing themselves against her or touching her bottom or breasts as they passed.
Crude jokes were told, including about rape, she said, and one colleague even sent her a video of himself masturbating while she was on maternity leave. He was allowed to resign, rather than be terminated. But after she complained about the inappropriate behavior, she says she was “overlooked for opportunities to upskill.”
BHP and Rio Tinto have both condemned the behavior and said they are committed to providing a safe and respectful workplace. However, the lawsuits claim that the companies have failed to take adequate action to prevent and address sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
The cases could take years to resolve, or less time if the companies decide to settle without challenging the women’s complaints. “For these women, they want to see genuine action and genuine change on these sites,” said Joshua Aylward, a JGA Saddler lawyer.
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