Bullying 'normalised' at Gold Fields, report finds

Gold Fields has joined the growing ranks of big corporates coming forward with workplace culture reports, the latest revealing half of the gold miner's staff had experienced bullying. 

The Johannesburg-based gold miner operates the Gruyere, Granny Smith, Agnew and St Ives mines in Western Australia and is considered the seventh biggest producer globally and the second biggest in the state. 

Results of Gold Fields’ independent workplace culture survey - which was undertaken in 2022 by consultant Elizabeth Broderick & Co and included 2,855 people- were published on Wednesday.

Of the total surveyed, 24 per cent were from Gold Fields’ Australian operations.

"A consistent theme was that bullying is normalised in many workplaces across Gold Fields," a 'key insights' section of the report relayed. 

"The Review team heard of the nature and impact of bullying behaviours, including the considerable distress that these behaviours caused.

"Participants spoke of losing confidence, of declining performance and of experiencing anxiety and depression."

Among the findings included data that more than half of respondents had reported experiencing bullying, sexual harassment or racism in the past five years.

Specifically, about 23 per cent of women had experienced and 7 per cent of men reported experiencing sexual harassment and 15 per cent had experienced racism.

Of the respondents who identified as LGBTQI+ within Gold Fields, 29 per cent said they had experienced harassment.

However, many employees also shared that they could feel a directional change on culture within the business. 

Gold Fields interim chief executive Martin Preece issued an apology and said bullying, sexual harassment and racism had no place at the company.

“I want to apologise to the people in our business who have been exposed to these behaviours,” he said.

“The purpose of this independent Review was to help us to understand and address these unacceptable behaviours decisively, and create a workplace that everybody feels part of, is attractive to talent, and where everyone can reach their full potential.”

Gold Fields chair Yunus Suleman said the board was distressed in response to the report’s findings.

“The board is distressed at the EB&Co Review findings and the negative impact of these unacceptable behaviours on so many Gold Fields employees and contractors,”

“We will be monitoring the efforts of Exco and other levels of leadership to eliminate these behaviours at Gold Fields workplaces.”

Mr Preece said the board and executive team would be pursuing the recommendations set out in the review as a priority.

Recommendations from Elizabeth Broderick & Co included that the board and executive committee take responsibility for cultural change and provide a signed statement committing to a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace.

In July, EY published findings of a landmark report it had commissioned that found a litany of problems among its staff, with many feeling overworked and large numbers experiencing bullying and sexual harassment.

In November 2022, Chevron handed down a workplace culture report that found nearly half of staff had been bullied.

Rio Tinto released a similar report back in February 2022, which also found widespread bullying, sexual harassment and racism across its global workforce.