By Melanie Burton
MELBOURNE, June 25 (Reuters) – Australia’s Fortescue, the world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner, was hit on Thursday with a class action lawsuit alleging the widespread sexual harassment of women at its remote mining sites.
The suit was filed by law firm JGA Saddler, which also launched similar class action lawsuits against Rio Tinto and BHP in late 2024. Those cases are still winding their way through the courts.
In 2022, the Western Australian state government recommended sweeping industry changes after detailing what it said was horrifying behaviour against women and finding sexual harassment and assault were rife in the fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mining sector.
“Time and time again, women are telling us that they don’t feel safe at the Fortescue mine sites,” JGA Saddler litigator Paris Hamrey said in a statement.
“Women are telling us that they can’t do their daily washing because their underwear is being stolen from the public laundries, they can’t go to the gym because men are touching them inappropriately or following them back to their room,” she said.
A spokesperson for Fortescue said sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination had no place at the company which was “committed to providing a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace for all employees and contractors.”
She declined to comment on any potential claims or allegations.
LAW FIRM SAYS WOMEN DEMOTED, DISMISSED AFTER REPORTING
The statement from JGA Saddler included 45 testimonials from women who have worked at Fortescue describing incidents they faced.
“I came home one night to find a random man in my room,” wrote one woman.
Fortescue said it was investing $300 million to improve living quarters at the sites with a focus on safety, including deadlocks, swipe-card access systems, CCTV and better lighting.
Hamrey said that when women at Fortescue have reported incidents, they were demoted, dismissed, silenced or blacklisted from the industry altogether.
Australia is the world’s top producer of iron ore and many of the country’s far-flung mines are serviced by FIFO workers. Women comprise 22% of the mining industry’s workforce, up from around 18% at the start of the decade.
Fortescue reported 22 cases of sexual harassment to Western Australia’s mines safety regulator in the 2025 financial year, down 27% from a year earlier, according to its latest safety report.
Of the three companies, it was the only one to report a decrease.
Last year, Rio Tinto’s care hub, which supports employees who report an array of disrespectful or harmful workplace behaviours including harassment, logged 702 incidents, up 24% from the year prior, according to its annual report.
BHP reported 429 incidents of sexual harassment in fiscal 2025, a 3% increase, according to its annual report, which also said that 100 individuals found responsible were either fired or resigned.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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