BHP welcomed the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act 2022 (Cth) (Respect@Work Act), which came into effect in December 2022. This amended the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) to require employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible, unlawful sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, victimisation and work environments that are hostile on the grounds of sex. 

Our approach to prevent sexual harassment 

In CY2018, we defined sexual harassment as a health and safety risk, to be overseen in the same way as other work health and safety risks. Since this time, we have been engaging our workforce and external experts as we address harmful behaviours with a risk-based approach. 

Priority focus areas have included driving progress toward gender balance, creating a safe and respectful workplace, building accountability and capability of leaders, upskilling our workforce to be active bystanders, enhancing our policies, processes and controls, and providing person-centred and trauma-informed response and support. 

In FY2024, BHP’s strategy to eliminate sexual harassment was updated to incorporate the Australian Human Rights Commission guidelines, advice received from Kristen Hilton (ex-Victorian Sex Discrimination Commissioner), and input from over 50 stakeholders and subject matter experts across BHP. The strategy seeks to enable prevention by addressing the drivers and risk factors of sexual harassment and enhance our response to incidents and support for impacted persons.

Going forward, BHP’s focus remains on:

• initiatives that increase female participation across our operations
• implementing our enhanced suite of sexual harassment prevention controls, which incorporate organisational learnings and third-party expert recommendations
• engaging and empowering our entire workforce to take action as active bystanders and enhancing their capabilities
• encouraging increased incident reporting and enhancing our approach to supporting impacted persons so they can thrive at BHP

Reports of sexual harassment 

There were 417 reports of sexual harassment in FY2024. These behaviours are unacceptable and we are working to eliminate them at BHP by increasing awareness and promote reporting, response and investigations in relation to these matters. Since October 2020, BHP managers and leaders have been required to enter any misconduct concerns raised directly with them into BHP’s misconduct reporting channels¹ (with impacted person remaining anonymous if requested). In FY2024, 42 per cent of sexual harassment reports received into BHP’s misconduct reporting channels were logged by managers or leaders on behalf of their direct reports.

During FY2024, across BHP’s global operations (including off site) and offices, 100 investigated cases of sexual harassment² conduct were established as having occurred through an investigation.³

Of the 100 established cases:

Leadership

BHP is focused on leaders understanding their obligations to prevent sexual harassment and being visibly committed to safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces through setting clear expectations and role modelling respectful behaviours. 

Our position on sexual harassment is reinforced through regular senior leadership communications. These include messages from our CEO, Executive Leadership Team and on-site signage regarding our expectations and avenues for support. Executive and senior leader remuneration are linked to Group-wide performance criteria, which includes progress towards greater inclusion, diversity and gender representation. This includes the program of work to address sexual harassment.

Respectful behaviour and sexual harassment prevention and response training is provided to BHP line leaders, aimed at setting clear expectations about appropriate conduct, supporting leaders to respond appropriately and drive consistent disciplinary outcomes.

Risk management

BHP continues to take a risk-based approach to preventing and responding to sexual harassment. Defining sexual harassment as a health and safety risk in CY2018, overseen in the same way as other work health and safety risks, was intended to provide a robust framework for addressing these behaviours. BHP’s Risk Framework allows us to apply a systematic, risk-based approach to evaluating and managing the risks. 

Our risk management approach includes conducting risk assessments to identify scenarios in which sexual or gendered harassment may arise, their potential causes and the controls we can implement to prevent and reduce harm. This recognises the high intersectionality with other psychosocial risks, which can increase the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring and the severity of harm it can cause. We acknowledge there are factors that contribute to the likelihood of workplace sexual harassment that are more pronounced in the mining industry. This includes isolated or remote working locations, a historically male-dominated workforce and accommodation villages, roles and equipment design as well as factors that are common across all industries and workplaces.

Our FY2024 focus was on implementing additional prevention controls informed by our data and organisational learnings across all assets and offices, including review and recommendations from third-party experts. Our sexual harassment prevention controls are associated with further education and maintaining respectful behaviours; leadership and culture; recruitment processes; security measures at accommodation villages; contractor and third-party engagement; data transparency and action; person-centred care for impacted persons; accessible confidential reporting; trauma-informed response and investigations, including multiple resolution options and pathways; and appropriate and proportionate disciplinary action. 

Culture 

BHP is committed to fostering a positive culture that is safe, respectful and inclusive for all workers (employees and contractors) and supports gender equality and diversity at all levels, and across all areas. Gender balance is a key protective factor for sexual harassment prevention and BHP has a clear aspiration to have a gender-balanced employee workforce by end of CY2025. A diverse and inclusive workforce in every team and at every level is an important part of our approach to preventing sexual harassment. 

BHP recognises that suppliers and contractors in our ecosystem have shared values around preventing sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination in our industry and communities. Third-party contractors are expected to comply with Our Code of Conduct and have access to Integrity@BHP, Support Service, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and other related care and medical/psychological treatment pathways. Contractors are also embedded in many aspects of BHP’s way of working, including in routines such as toolbox talks and safety shares, perception surveys and required training.

Knowledge of sexual harassment prevention and response 

Since FY2018, we have been continuing to develop a sustained program of work designed to increase the capability of our workforce to identify and call out disrespectful behaviour, including sexual harassment, racism and bullying. 

In FY2024, we continued to engage and empower our entire workforce to take action as active bystanders by enhancing their capabilities to identify and call out disrespectful behaviour through scenario-based learning. BHP strives to ensure leaders understand their obligations to prevent sexual harassment and are visibly committed to safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces through setting clear expectations and role modelling respectful behaviours.  

BHP prioritises the wellbeing, psychological safety and needs of all people affected by sexual harassment, sex-based discrimination and victimisation. We established our global Support Service in FY2022 to provide dedicated, end-to-end case coordination for anyone impacted by sexual harassment, which is designed to assist with appropriate support and information. The Support Service can also provide resolution options when an investigation is not wanted by the impacted person or cannot proceed.

Support and reporting 

We encourage our workforce to report concerns, including by providing centralised and confidential reporting tools and mandatory reporting requirements for line leaders. We do not tolerate any form of retaliation for raising a concern. We ceased using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or imposing confidentiality obligations on complainants in respect of their experiences in settlement agreements relating to sexual harassment in March 2019. We do not enforce any NDAs or confidentiality obligations on complainants of sexual harassment in historical agreements.  

Investigations of reports of sexual harassment are conducted by our specialised Investigations and Response team, which is independent from our other business units. This team includes experts trained in a person-centred, trauma-informed approach to help place the impacted person at the centre of decisions made during the investigation process and to minimise the risk of further harm to the individual.

Alternatively, resolution pathways can be used in certain cases. This process only occurs where the resolution pathway is proportionate to the nature of the conduct and with the agreement of the impacted person. The resolution pathways include supported conversations with respondents, additional training, monitoring or awareness raising on BHP’s expectations of respectful behaviours in the workplace. We continue to monitor and review the use of our resolution pathways to assess whether they are meeting the needs of impacted people and to improve reporting to support organisational lessons learned.

Measuring 

De-identified information and trend analysis data on the number of complaints, nature of complaints, resolution pathways, outcomes and timelines are accessible by leadership to raise awareness and support continuous improvement of how we prevent and mitigate the impacts of sexual harassment. 

We measure our progress and are committed to continually improving our approach. 

We measure our progress against our initiatives and key metrics for sexual harassment prevention and response, such as training completion, risk management, control implementation and effectiveness, engagement results and misconduct reporting data, and are committed to continually improving our approach. De-identified information and trend analysis data on the number of complaints, nature of complaints, resolution pathways, outcomes and timelines are provided to senior leadership and the Board to raise awareness and support continuous improvement of how we prevent and mitigate the impacts of sexual harassment at BHP.   

We also remain committed to working with others in the industry and beyond to address sexual harassment risks. BHP is a member of the Minerals Council of Australia’s Respect@Work Taskforce and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy Western Australia’s Safe and Respectful Behaviours Working Group. Both groups aim to build industry capability and capacity though sharing knowledge and developing shared resources.

¹ BHP’s channels to raise misconduct concerns comprise an online portal and 24-hour multilingual call service. Reporting channels are confidential and accessible to all, including external partners and stakeholders and the public, to report conduct that may be unethical, illegal or inconsistent with Our Code of Conduct.

² Sexual harassment is, as defined in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, in circumstances where a reasonable person would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated and/or intimidated. Sexual harassment encompasses a range of conduct, including displaying sexually graphic images, sexually suggestive comments, suggestive or inappropriate looks, gestures or staring, non-consensual touching or acts of a sexual nature and sexual assault. We note the definition of sexual harassment may vary in different jurisdictions.

³ The calculation is based on reports closed in FY2024, containing one or more established allegations. Not all reports resulted in a finding. This can occur if there is insufficient information, the respondent is not able to be identified or was previously terminated, or the impacted person did not wish to proceed. This figure includes cases opened in FY2024 and prior to FY2024 that were closed during the reporting period. When referring to cases closed during FY2024 this excludes cases that were still open at the end of the reporting period.