According to allegations made by the Australian mining giant BHP, the company underpaid current and past employees across the country for a period of thirteen years.
According to the findings of the assessment that was carried out by the company, about 28,500 workers were given less vacation days than they were legally entitled to.
In the meanwhile, there were 400 employees who did not get their supplementary allowances “due to an error with the employment entity.”
According to BHP, the issue has been reported to the appropriate authorities, and the firm estimates that the inaccuracies would cost it up to $280 million (£225 million) before taxes.
The company discovered that erroneous leave deductions were made for some impacted employees on Australian public holidays. The average amount of leave they were due was six days.
We sincerely apologise to all current and former employees who were touched by these errors. Geraldine Slattery president of BHP Australia declared that this was unacceptable and fell short of the standards that BHP expects.
She continued “We are actively trying to address and resolve these problems as soon as we can.
In addition, the company disclosed that a review of its payroll systems had been ordered. It further stated that when its call to discuss the results of the full year in August, it would provide an update on its investigations.
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Australia’s convoluted employment conundrum:
The largest miner in the world is called BHP and its headquarters are in Melbourne.
The Escondida mine in Chile which is the biggest copper mine in the world, employs about 80,000 full-time employees and contract workers.
The company was a longtime member of the blue chip FTSE 100 index in the UK in addition to having its shares listed in Australia.
When certain investors pushed the company to streamline its corporate structure the company removed its shares from the London market in January 2022.
The move, according to its proponents, would make it simpler for BHP to raise capital, close agreements, and distribute profits to shareholders.
