17-07-2022, 03:03 PM
By Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
23 June
Colleagues rifling through your underwear drawer. A boss demanding sex in exchange for promotion. Unsolicited nude photos, innuendo, and assaults.
These are all experiences of women in Western Australia's mining industry, as told to a state parliament inquiry.
Its report was handed down Thursday, revealing sexual harassment is rife at sites run by large mining firms.
The landmark report described the harassment as "appalling" and "generally accepted or overlooked".
......
Critics have long raised concerns about the hard-drinking, male-dominated culture that has been allowed to flourish at these sites.
The inquiry, which ran for almost a year, was prompted by previous court cases. It received nearly 100 submissions and examined some of the state's biggest miners as well as government regulators.
......
One woman quoted in the report said she was "knocked unconscious in her donga [accommodation] and awoke to find her jeans and underpants around her ankles".
Another said: "I have been to about half a dozen sites, and I can truthfully state that I have been sexually harassed at every single one of them.
"The degree to which has varied, from inappropriate comments and innuendo, to salacious rumours, being touched without my consent, and being cornered in a laundry and being genuinely fearful I was about to be assaulted."
Other women reported "powerplay behaviour" known as "shovelling", where iron ore would be dumped on the cabs of female truck drivers if they didn't comply with sexual requests.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61906057
BBC News, Sydney
23 June
Colleagues rifling through your underwear drawer. A boss demanding sex in exchange for promotion. Unsolicited nude photos, innuendo, and assaults.
These are all experiences of women in Western Australia's mining industry, as told to a state parliament inquiry.
Its report was handed down Thursday, revealing sexual harassment is rife at sites run by large mining firms.
The landmark report described the harassment as "appalling" and "generally accepted or overlooked".
......
Critics have long raised concerns about the hard-drinking, male-dominated culture that has been allowed to flourish at these sites.
The inquiry, which ran for almost a year, was prompted by previous court cases. It received nearly 100 submissions and examined some of the state's biggest miners as well as government regulators.
......
One woman quoted in the report said she was "knocked unconscious in her donga [accommodation] and awoke to find her jeans and underpants around her ankles".
Another said: "I have been to about half a dozen sites, and I can truthfully state that I have been sexually harassed at every single one of them.
"The degree to which has varied, from inappropriate comments and innuendo, to salacious rumours, being touched without my consent, and being cornered in a laundry and being genuinely fearful I was about to be assaulted."
Other women reported "powerplay behaviour" known as "shovelling", where iron ore would be dumped on the cabs of female truck drivers if they didn't comply with sexual requests.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61906057