Rio Tinto's Gender Inequality: An Action Plan and Performance Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of gender inequality at Rio Tinto, a major multinational mining corporation. It begins with an overview of the company, its performance concerning gender equality, and an assessment of the existing gender gap within the mining industry. The report examines Rio Tinto's current diversity and inclusion practices, compares its performance to industry benchmarks, and highlights relevant government legislation and non-governmental agencies working to address gender inequality. It identifies shortcomings in Rio Tinto's current practices and offers recommendations for improvement, culminating in a detailed action plan. The executive summary outlines the report's key findings and objectives, aiming to improve the organization's performance by analyzing the gender gap and establishing a respective action plan.

Task 3: Action plan

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Company Overview.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction of Rio Tinto............................................................................................................1
Company's performance in relation to gender equality...............................................................1
Performance of mining industry Rio Tinto and the existing gap................................................3
Current Diversity practices at Rio Tinto..........................................................................................5
Current Diversity and inclusion practices in relation to gender inequality at Rio Tinto............5
Industry Benchmarks.......................................................................................................................6
Performance of Rio Tinto relative to its mining competitors in relation to gender inequality...6
Government legislation and Non-Governance Agencies.................................................................8
Relevant state and Federal legislation that affects Rio Tinto in relation to gender inequality. . .8
Non government agencies working towards improving outcomes for Gender inequality in
order to address this gap..............................................................................................................8
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Action Plan.....................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

Executive Summary
Action plan is an outlining action of the plan that is required in order to reach a particular
goal. The requirement of this action plan is to overcome the gender based inequality in Rio Tinto
which is an Anglo American multinational company and is among the largest metals and mining
corporations that was founded in the year 1873, having its headquarter in London, UK. Report
have included an overview of the organisation and have identified the Company's performance in
relation to gender equality. Report also have analysed performance of mining industry Rio Tinto
and the existing gap so that proper action plan can be prepared in order to overcome the gender
based inequalities. It is also to required to identify the performance of Rio Tinto relative to its
mining competitors in relation to gender inequality so that respective action plan can be set to
bring competitive advantage to the firm so, report have included the same. Report also have
included relevant state and federal legislation that affects Rio Tinto in relation to gender
inequality and also Non government agencies working towards improving outcomes for Gender
inequality in order to address this gap. This study is conducted in order to improve the
organisation's performance by analysing the gender gap so that respective action plan can be set.
INTRODUCTION
Diversity in a work place is basically determined on the bases of similarities and
differences among the employees of the organisation and on the bases of their age, gender,
culture, race etc(Barak, 2016). Present study is based on the company Rio Tinto that is an Anglo
American multinational company and is among the largest metals and mining corporations that
was founded in the year 1873, having its headquarter in London, UK. Report will include
introduction of Rio Tinto and its performance in relation to gender equality. Further report will
include performance of mining industry Rio Tinto and the existing gap between the female and
male equality. Report will also include current Diversity and inclusion practices in relation to
gender inequality at Rio Tinto and its performance relative to its mining competitors in relation
to gender inequality. Report will also highlight the short falls in Rio Tinto current practice as
compared with industry leaders. Relevant state and Federal legislation that affects Rio Tinto in
relation to gender inequality will also be included in the report. Report will also include Non
government agencies working towards improving outcomes for Gender inequality in order to
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address this gap and finally the appropriate recommendation and conclusions will be included in
the report(Sartin, and et.al., 2018).
Company Overview
Introduction of Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is an Anglo American multinational company and is among the largest metals
and mining corporations that was founded in the year 1873, having its headquarter in London,
UK. There are approximately 47,000 working employees and overall revenue that company is
generating is about US$40.522 billion. Company is operating in six continents and owns its
mining operations through a complex web of wholly and partly owned subsidiaries(Rio Tinto
Australia, 2019).
Purpose of diversity action plan
The main purpose of diversity action plan is to achieve the gender equality goals and
developing the leaders and managers capability to embed gender equity in team and departments.
 It helps in increasing employee satisfaction and productivity.
 It brings ideas for improving teamwork and internal and external relationship.
 It helps in attracting the ability and retaining the quality employees.
Company's performance in relation to gender equality
In Rio Tinto Gender inequality is seemed to be high as number of male managers that is
about 15 are more than compared with the number of female managers that are only 5. If
comparison is done for non managers than also there are about 20 female non managers working
as full-time employees and 126 males are full-time non managers in Rio Tinto(Koskinen
Sandberg, 2017).
Figure:- 1
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Figure:-2
It is also been analysed that number of promoted male managers and non-managers are
more than compared with female that is there are about 6 female managers getting promotion
over 25 male managers that are getting same promotions. Men in Rio Tinto are more likely to be
promoted than the Women(Kılıç and Kuzey, 2016).
Figure:- 3
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Illustration 1: Rio Tinto report on gender equality
Illustration 2: Rio Tinto report on promotions

In Rio Tinto it is been seen that for different occupations in the mining, there are only
5.9% females for the occupation of drillers, miners and short fires as compared with that of
males, that are about 94.1%. For different occupations, males ratio is high as compared with that
of females(Khan And et.al., 2019).
From all these analyses it is been interpreted that, company is lacking behind in terms of
gender equality and is required to overcome these gaps(Benschop, 2016).
Performance of mining industry Rio Tinto and the existing gap
Figure:- 4
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It is been interpreted that in manufacturing industries of Australia including Rio Tinto
there is a Gender gap between female and male, that is about 15.5%(Ozturk and Tatli, 2016).
Company is working on this gap and in 2018, the balance increased slightly from 22.4% to
22.6% within senior management. But the gap is huge and Rio Tinto have to take the effective
actions in order to cover the gap. Although the number of women in operations roles increased
from 5 to 15% but in the case of the total employee population, gender balance have decreased
from 18% to 17.7%. Committee of Rio Tinto have reviewed and endorsed the gender diversity
objective in 2019. Presently there are about 27% of board members as women and for the same
company signed up Voluntary code of conduct on diversity best practice and company is looking
to increase the female representation on the board as vacancies are seemed to arise(Cunningham,
2019).
On gender diversity it is been seen that overall percentage of female employees have
decreased by 0.3%. But the number of women in operations roles increased from 5% to 15% and
only 22.6% of senior management roles are taken by the women(Belas and et.al., 2015).
Gender pay gap in 2018 was seen 1% in favour of men overall. But the company is
working to substantially increase the number of women employed at all level. Company aims to
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Illustration 3: Gender pay gap comparison

increase the graduate intake from 36% to 50% and also target in improving the proportion of
women in senior management by 2% each year(Marinova, Plantenga and Remery, 2016).
Current Diversity practices at Rio Tinto
Current Diversity and inclusion practices in relation to gender inequality at Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is committing to increase the women representation in the mining and for the
same company have shortlisted 5 women in the Mining UK's 100 Global inspirational women in
mining project(Kakabadse And et.al., 2015). Not only this Rio Tinto is using different Diversity
and inclusion practices and this policy is helping to set expectations around behaviours needs for
an inclusive and diverse workplace. For the same company is giving equal opportunity to the
employer and do not discriminate the people on the bases of age, gender, race, language etc. The
different Rio Tinto policies include, Human Rights, Employment and Communities policies,
ESG framework and People and Business strategy(Inclusion and diversity policy, 2019). In order
to make sure that gender inequality is not there in the organisation, company is using the policy
of Human Right and Employment and Communities policies(Kakabadse And et.al., 2015).
Company is using the Human right approach that has an obligation to respect all the
people working in Rio Tinto, including the women and girls so that they can live adequate
standards of living(Keenan, Kemp and Ramsay, 2016). According to this policy, equality means
women and men must have equal access to employment opportunities in order to provide safe
working conditions and fair remuneration and also health services. Company have also signed
the UN Global Compact that draws Universal declaration of Human Rights and other
conventions. Generally, Gender inequality is recognised as the major obstacle that is eradicating
poverty(Lahiri‐Dutt, 2015).
A rights-compatible gender and diversity approach helps the company to increase its
capacity in order to minimise negative impacts of mining, maintain social silence to operate. Rio
Tinto is working for inclusive engagement and for the same company is ensuring that the women
and men from different social groups can participate in meaningful and influential
ways(Galbreath, 2018).
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Industry Benchmarks
Performance of Rio Tinto relative to its mining competitors in relation to gender inequality
There are different competitors of Rio Tinto and these mining competitors are giving
tough competition to the company. Alcoa Inc., Anglo American PLC, De Beers SA etc. are the
competitor and they are also facing challenges in relation to gender inequality(Conyon and He,
2017).
Alcoa is Rio Tinto's biggest rival, though Alcoa is generating $26.4 Billion less revenue.
If talk about the gender equality, Rio Tinto is having better practices from Alcoa though the there
chairman and managing director of Alcoa, Michael Parker have been named the national 2019
Gender Diversity Champion. But Alcoa is having about 7.7% total remuneration gap(Hossain,
Chapple and Monroe, 2018).
Figure:- 1
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It is interpreted from that Alcoa is having less number of working women than compared
with Rio Tinto. Male managers in Rio Tinto are about 15 and are more than compared with the
number of female managers that are only 5. And in case of Alcoa there are only 4 female
managers over 20 males. So ratio is somewhat balanced in Rio Tinto then Alcoa(Ali, 2016).
On the other hand female managers at Alcoa are getting more promotions than compared
with female managers at Rio Tinto. But the non-manger ratio is more in Rio Tinto.
So Rio Tinto is competing effectively with its competitors with respect to Gender
equality. But there is bench mark for the company as Alcoa is giving more promotion to its
female managers, so company have to work on this and have to give chance to its female
managers so that they can bring competitive advantage to the firm(Solakoglu and Demir, 2016).
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Illustration 4: Alcoa gender inequality
Illustration 5: Promotion ratio of male and female in Alcoa

Government legislation and Non-Governance Agencies
Relevant state and Federal legislation that affects Rio Tinto in relation to gender inequality
There are different legislation that affects Rio Tinto with respect to gender inequality:-
 Sex Discrimination act 1984:- According to this act company take care that the working
women are not having any issue related to sexual orientation, gender identity etc. women
can take action against action sort of misbehave they face during the working hours, for
which government will be taking serious action against the company and staff members.
For overcoming this Rio Tinto is providing a comfortable working environment to all the
working women.
 Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012:- This act is promoting and improving the
gender inequality in Australian workplace in order to bring equal opportunity for women
in the workplace agency(Pearl-Martinez and Stephens, 2016).
Non government agencies working towards improving outcomes for Gender inequality in order
to address this gap
There are different non government agencies that are working towards the improvement
for gender inequality. These are as follows:-
 National Council of Women Australia:- NCWA is taking on the responsibility of
implementing the gender equality and women empowerment agendas of the global
industries. It is a non-government umbrella organisation with broadly humanitarian and
educational objectives and its is having focus over the women and girls rights and also to
encourage the women in all aspects of community life. If any women is feeling inequality
at workplace, they are free to take help of this NGO to have their rights(Nakagawa,
2015).
 CARE Australia:- It is another organisation that is taking strict action against gender
violence. This organisation is conducting different research with respect to rates and costs
of sexual harassment in different industries. Organisation is helping the women at
workplace by supporting them and making them strong to fight against the gender
inequality.
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Recommendations
 There are more population of male managers as compared with that of female manager,
so Rio Tinto have to work in order to overcome these differences. Organisation have to
make its focus over the cultural and organisational changes in order to reduce the
inequality. For the Rio Tinto have put efforts for creating inclusive workplace. There are
more number of promoted male managers and non-managers than compared with female.
So Rio Tinto have to put efforts in order to overcome this gap. It is also been seen that in
this company overall percentage of female employees have decreased by 0.3% so
organisation have to overcome this by creating an environment where all women are
treated equally with the men. Female population for the occupation of drillers, miners and
short fires have to be increased and Rio Tinto have to take the effective actions in order
to cover the gap.
 Organisation have to make the gender equality as part of the training and development.
Salaries and promotion should be monitored and evaluated on the regular basis in order to
treat the staff members equally without can sexual differences. Rio Tinto have to use the
power of networking, mentoring and coaching as it can help women build confidence in
them and they are able to develop a good career ahead. Rio Tinto have to put efforts in
order to identify and prevent the unconscious bias in the organisation(Mayer and
Barnard, 2015).
 If equality is there at the workplace related to gender than there will be better national
economic growth and also productivity of the nation rises. Not only this Rio Tinto will be
able to have stronger reputation of the company by building upon fairness and equal
rights. It also becomes better organisational performance as many women are having
better potential then what men are having.
 For the same Rio Tinto have to put efforts in order to encourage the women to enter the
field of mining and take part in all the respective activities and operations of the business.
Women as a leadership role can play an inspiring role and recruiters have to work hard in
order recruit talented and driven women in their firm. In order to eradicate the problems
that women at Rio Tinto is facing is to increase the awareness about existence and
offering the same opportunities, salaries and positions as male workers are
getting(Jenkins, 2017).
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