South32 job losses set to surpass 100 as Perth HQ sackings follow Worsley alumina refinery cull

South32 is rolling out redundancies at its Perth headquarters amid a wave of job cuts sweeping through the State’s mining industry. A “small number” of back-office roles have been cut as “part of functional reviews”, according to a S32 spokeswoman. The spokeswoman declined to reveal how many employees have been caught up in the purge, but sources have told The West Australian that between 20 and 30 people have so far lost their jobs with further axings likely to follow. These office job losses are unrelated to redundancies at the Worsley alumina refinery in WA’s South West that S32 announced last Tuesday, the spokeswoman said. About 70 workers were offered severance packages at S32’s Worsley, which transforms bauxite strip-mined from WA’s Jarrah Forest into alumina. That alumina is then smelted overseas to produce aluminium. “Worsley has recently undertaken a review of its activities to support the ongoing sustainability of the operation against a backdrop of cost and market pressures,” the spokeswoman said. “As part of this process, we have assessed our workforce composition and structure to support a sustainable future for Worsley. “Unfortunately, some roles have been made redundant. We have engaged directly will all impacted employees and provided a range of supports to them, their families and teams.” S32’s Worsley redundancies started on the same day as BHP announced it would scale back, then eventually wind down, the Yandi iron ore mine in the Pilbara. Yandi sustains about 720 roles, including up to 150 contractors — mainly via ESS and Programmed. A fortnight prior to the Yandi decision, Fortescue confirmed it would fire at least 200 employees across the UK and Australia, including in Perth. The iron ore miner is sending manufacturing work related to its zero-emission trucks to China and Germany. “It’s senseless to compete (with the Chinese),” Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest reportedly said. “We’re building up our research in Oxford, but we’re making sure that manufacturing is done wherever it’s most efficient.” Rio Tinto is yet to pull the trigger on a major cull in recent weeks but chief executive Simon Trott has foreshadowed a large restructure targeting layers of management below Rio’s executive team. Mr Trott told staff via email last week the changes would be “fundamental” and implied there would be a sizeable number of jobs impacted. “Change brings uncertainty, and it can affect people we report to, colleagues we respect, friends we work alongside. Please support each other and keep safety at the front of your mind as we work through these details together,” he said.