MELBOURNE - A senior executive under investigation for sexual harassment and bullying is still working at Fortescue while an inquiry is underway, the company's energy chief Gus Pichot said on Thursday.

Fortescue has hired law firm MinterEllison to investigate the allegations which the company is taking "extremely seriously," it said in a statement to Reuters. The allegations against the unnamed senior executive were first reported by the Australian Financial Review earlier this month.

"We have taken extensive external legal and governance advice so we are quite confident we are following the proper process,” Pichot said on an earnings call.

Sexual harassment has been a persistent issue at West Australian mine sites and sparked a State inquiry in 2021.

Fortescue, Australia's third-largest miner, on Thursday reported a drop of 20% to 98 "psychosocial" breaches, which include sexual harassment, ethics issues and other incidents, in the latest financial year.

The company, which has 16 154 employees, said it had dismissed 11 for breaches of its code of conduct relating to discrimination and sexual harassment. It found 13 cases of inappropriate sexual contact, 10 of sexual harassment and one of sexual assault.

Fortescue was served with a class action in July alleging workplace misconduct, including sexual harassment and sex discrimination, with potential damages not yet specified.

The suit was filed by law firm JGA Saddler, which also launched similar class action lawsuits against Rio Tinto and BHP in late 2024. Those cases are still winding their way through the courts.

BHP's annual report released this week said it terminated 109 employees responsible for sexual harassment and 22 for racial harassment last year.

It logged an 11% drop in reports of sexual harassment to 380 in the 2026 financial year and a 17% drop in reports of racial harassment to 86. The top global miner has 84,309 employees and contractors worldwide.

Rio Tinto, which reports on a calendar year, in 2025 logged a 24% increase to 702 incidents reported to its care hub, which supports employees facing an array of disrespectful or harmful workplace behaviours including harassment.

Western Australia's health and safety regulator WorkSafe logged 28 incidents related to sexual assault and harassment in the first six months of the year, according to data provided to Reuters, down from 113 for the whole of last year and a high of 421 in 2022.

The regulator attributed the drop to a dedicated team of specialists that had increased its response capacity following the state's inquiry into sexual harassment.