By Rachel Pannett
PORT HEDLAND, Australia -- In this sprawling port in Western
Australia's remote Pilbara region, Sammy Petrucco changed jobs this
year. She swapped managing a dental practice for operating a ship
loader that pours tons of iron ore onto awaiting ships.
Some days, she climbs inside a Ferris wheel-size scoop that
loads the ore from piles in the stockyard onto a conveyor belt,
where it travels to the ship.
"I've been to some really nice hotels and day spas in my life,"
Ms. Petrucco said, "but changing out of head-to-toe mud and sweat
at 3 a.m. and into a clean uniform -- I didn't know luxury until
that moment."
Ms. Petrucco is the kind of worker sought by Anglo-Australian
BHP Billiton Ltd., one of the world's biggest mining companies, as
it aims to achieve a 50%-female workforce by 2025, up from just
over 20% now.
A former banker, pharmacist and hairdresser are among more than
1,800 women who have joined BHP in the past year, many leaving jobs
in air-conditioned buildings for the dust and heat of the
Outback.
At a BHP railcar repair shop outside Port Hedland, women make up
30% of the workforce of around 200, a jump from just 5% in June
2016.
BHP's rivals, including mining giants Vale SA and Rio Tinto PLC,
also have diversity hiring programs. At a time when robots and
automation have transformed many heavy-lifting jobs into
computer-directed tasks, female recruits with science or
engineering degrees are proving they are as equipped as men to
compete for high-paying mine jobs.
Politicians, investors and organizations like the United Nations
have been nudging companies toward greater gender diversity. Since
2012, big companies in Australia have been required by law to
provide annual updates on how many women they employ and their
pay.
With more women in the workforce, mines perform better and with
fewer injuries, said Mike Henry, president of BHP's Australian
operations. The company's 10 most-diverse mines outperformed other
sites by about 15% over the past three years in output and meeting
maintenance schedules, he said.
Rio Tinto's most diverse operation, the Oyu Tolgoi copper and
gold mine in Mongolia, is one of its safest and has less wear and
tear on mining equipment, according to a 2016 company
sustainability report. Just over a quarter of the mine's employees
are women. Rio didn't respond to requests for comment.
Brazilian mining giant Vale started a gender-equality project in
2011 to bolster the proportion of female workers from 11%. The
project, which included mentoring women in Brazil and developing
safety glasses to fit women's faces, hardly moved the dial. The
percentage of women in Vale's workforce in 2016 was 12%.
Vale said it has been easier to recruit women into office jobs,
where they fill about 40% of the 14,000 staff positions in areas
such as legal, communications and human resources. Most recently
opened positions are in remote locations and in fields historically
considered better suited to men, such as mechanic, electrician and
welder, according to Desiê Ribeiro, Vale's executive manager of
education and talent management.
Globally, men continue to occupy most mining industry jobs at
all levels. Women's pay lags behind men's, and a macho culture
persists in many mining towns. In the industry's executive ranks,
women in 2016 made up 9% of board members at the top 30 mining and
metals companies by market capitalization, according to a Ernst
& Young report published in July -- well below the average 22%
of board members at S&P 500 companies found in an analysis of
2017 proxy statements by Spencer Stuart, an executive-recruitment
firm.
Female participation in mining In Australia, a resources
superpower feeding China's demand for iron ore, copper and coal, is
around 16% of roughly 222,000 workers, up from 14% two years ago.
Overall employment in the industry has fallen amid a downturn in
commodity prices. While women in the industry earn an average 15%
less than their male counterparts, that pay gap is narrower than
two years ago when it was 18%, government data show.
Mining isn't an easy sell to many women. The women's health
clinic in Port Hedland offers advice on coping with isolation and
domestic violence. It runs a needle exchange for drug users.
Bikini-clad waitresses serve drinks at one of the handful of local
bars.
But change is coming to mining camps, where fly-in, fly-out
workers live for weeks on the outskirts of dusty Outback towns.
Fences around swimming pools shield bathers from onlookers, fitness
facilities have been expanded for women, and companies such as BHP
have introduced yoga areas and flexible work schedules.
"For me, it was a bit intimidating to start with because this
is, or was, a male environment," said Crystal Samata, 24 years old,
who cared for the elderly and disabled before joining a BHP
maintenance crew at Whaleback, the world's biggest open-pit
iron-ore mine in the Pilbara region. Now, she says, her co-workers
are like family: Some days the guys bring in eggs from their
backyard flocks. On weekends, they go swimming in remote Outback
water holes.
At Port Hedland, the male-female balance is shifting. Some 31%
of port production roles -- such as operators of ship loaders --
are held by women, up from 25% in fiscal 2016. Retaining female
recruits is another battle: Overall attrition for female workers
was around 15.5% in fiscal 2017 versus 9.8% for men, though the gap
has narrowed in recent years.
Ms. Petrucco says she has no plans to leave. Her only regret,
she said, is that she didn't change careers earlier, "because I
just love it."
Write to Rachel Pannett at rachel.pannett@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 08, 2017 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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