Chevron Australia has said it is determined to take meaningful action after a report found many workers in the US multinational’s West Australian gas business had experienced harassment,bullying or discrimination.
Almost half of the workers surveyed by consultancy Intersection had been bullied at work in the past five years,nearly a third experienced sexual harassment and almost as many had been harassed in other ways,according to an independent report released today.
The report found workers were loath to report incidents after successive waves of job cuts have left them fearful of speaking up.
Bullies most commonly humiliated their coworkers,undermined their work and continually and unjustly criticised their work.
Chevron commissioned the report in the wake of the WA parliament’s 2021 inquiry into sexual harassment against women at fly-in fly-out work sites.
Chevron Australia managing director Mark Hatfield apologised to anyone who experienced inappropriate behaviour while working for the US multinational in Australia.
“What is clear is that bullying,harassment and discrimination occurs in our workplaces,and not everyone feels confident in reporting these incidents,” Hatfield said.
“We accept the report and are determined to take meaningful action.”
Intersection found there was a high tolerance at Chevron for relatively low-level behaviours,especially sexual harassment,that was dismissed as joking or banter rather than being reported as inappropriate.
One female employee on her first day on site was asked by two people if she was single because “the guys” wanted to know.
“I said,‘I am not here for that,like,I’m just here to do my job’ but it wouldn’t stop,” she said.
“At work,at camp,in the mess,people would just come and chat to you and ask you all sorts of questions about your private life.
“I felt like I was being hunted.”
Chevron has followed iron ore miner Rio Tinto,which revealed in February what it describes as.
There is no indication that Chevron and Rio Tinto’s workplaces are any worse than other large resource companies,but they have been more open about it.