The Western Australian government has committed to supporting all recommendations relating to sexual harassment in the mining industry, following a parliamentary inquiry into conditions for the fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workforce.
Minister for industrial relations and mines and petroleum Bill Johnston acknowledged the “bravery and resilience” of the women who shared their experiences with the parliamentary inquiry.
“The government is strongly committed to providing safe and inclusive workplaces for all employees across Western Australia, regardless of industry or size,” Johnston said in a statement.
“I call on industry to ensure our mining sector is accountable and responsive to community standards.
“We need to work together to build a culture of respect as women have a right to work in safe workplaces that are free from sexual harassment.”
The inquiry’s ‘Enough is enough’ report was tabled in state parliament on Wednesday, with the government confirming all 15 recommendations would be either supported or supported in principle.
One of the first actions will be for WorkSafe WA to establish a culturally appropriate expert group to investigate, assess and deal with reports of sexual harassment and assault offences in the FIFO sector.
Other changes include a suite of law reforms to be introduced in early 2023, more funding for community legal and advocacy services and the development of a new code of conduct to protect FIFO employees while living in workplace accommodation.
The government said the code will be designed to set a minimum standard for employers to ensure the safety of workers who live regionally or remotely.
Johnston also urged industry to consider how they could apply the report’s recommendations to improve the culture of workplace safety.
“We cannot be complacent when it comes to inappropriate workplace behaviours; there is much to be done and the government will continue to advocate for change,” he said.
The new announcements complement existing initiatives under the Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety (MARS) program for the mining industry. MARS was designed to improve mental health, workplace culture and mine safety in the sector and captures the Respect in Mining pilot, the Thrive at Work in Mining program and a landmark study into mental health, workplace culture and safety for the sector.
The government also plans to report to parliament by the end of the year after a landmark study conducted by the Centre for Transformative Work Design and the regulatory review findings were released.
Minister for women’s interests Simone McGurk said sexual violence in the workplace was the worse end of the harassment spectrum with inappropriate behaviour and a disregard for women’s experiences driving the few women in mining out of the sector.
“We need more women to work in this sector and we need them to be treated with respect,” McGurk said.
“It’s imperative the mining sector works with the state government to lead cultural change and prioritise prevention and better supports for victim-survivors.”
Further measures to improve safety at work across all of WA’s industries include implementation of the Respect@Work report recommendations and developing the state’s first whole-of-government Sexual Violence Prevention Strategy.
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