Tuesday's report, which took nearly a year for an outside firm to complete and involved feedback from nearly a quarter of Rio's 45,000 employees, provides a detailed disclosure ofOne female worker described being asked to perform oral sex on a male colleague. When the request was reported, a supervisor said he was sure the man was joking and Rio would “make sure you're not alone with him.
“Other companies need to take this as a signal that the human element can't be ignored,” said Katie Mehnert of Ally Energy, a networking group connecting workers with companies in the renewable energy industry. “We hope this example Rio Tinto is setting will foster dialogue and will make other mining companies follow suit,” said Barbara Dischinger, director of London-based International Women in Mining, a non-profit that promotes gender equality in the mining industry.
A Reuters reporter in 2018 witnessed miners, gathered for an industry convention, dropping their pants to sing karaoke in their underwear.