BHP, the world's largest mining company, has disclosed in its annual report that 109 workers lost their jobs or resigned during the last financial year after sexually harassing colleagues. The cases included numerous instances of indecent touching, stalking, and grooming. This was reported by infohub.kz.

The annual report, published on Tuesday, showed 113 confirmed reports of sexual harassment, with 109 resulting in workers leaving the company. This is the highest number of confirmed reports since 2023. The company said that many of these cases occurred during a period of heightened scrutiny of remote work sites, where female workers across the industry have raised allegations of systemic sexual harassment, violence, and retaliation.

BHP has major iron ore and copper operations in Australia, and North and South America. A company spokesperson could not immediately clarify where the majority of cases occurred. However, the company stated that allegations are investigated by an ethics team independent from operations.

A further 104 reports of sexual harassment were not investigated "due to insufficient information or the wishes of the impacted person". The majority of confirmed instances involved indecent touching, stalking, grooming, and sexually aggressive comments and jokes.

Past parliamentary inquiries and reports by the office of the sex discrimination commissioner have found cultures of sexual assault, sexism, bullying, and racism across the mining industry, especially at remote projects where workers stay for weeks at a time. Currently, three separate class actions are before the courts against BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue, alleging widespread sexual harassment, sexual violence, and sex discrimination at work sites. The class actions, filed by law firm JGA Saddler, allege that "most women, if not all" working on remote sites have suffered some form of sexual harassment or sex discrimination.

Additionally, BHP disclosed that 22 people responsible for racial harassment had their employment terminated or resigned last financial year.