Date: Apr 08, 2019
The world’s biggest miner, BHP Group, is poised to cut over 700 white-collar jobs, The Australian newspaper reported, adding that the process could start as early as next week.
Last week, BHP chief financial officer Peter Beaven revealed plans of cuts of up to 20 per cent to his 900-strong finance team at an internal town hall meeting, the newspaper said.
BHP’s technology group will also face cuts in workforce as part of a restructuring that could see up to 30 per cent of its 2,000-strong Australian and Singapore workforce leave the group, the report said.
The cuts are not targeted at the workforce operating BHP’s global mines but will be part of its restructuring of “functional” sections in an attempt to streamline their operations, The Australian reported.
BHP has around 400 people in Singapore, supporting the group’s marketing, procurement, market intelligence, freight and technology functions.
It said Singapore houses BHP’s technology architecture for enterprise and operational hardware.
BHP’s Singapore-based subsidiary, BHP Billiton Marketing Asia, markets and sells commodities including coal, copper, iron ore, nickel and uranium.
A spokesman for BHP declined to comment on The Australian report, but said the process of simplifying the business and support facilities has been under way for about a year. “This work began about 12 months ago and is across functions including finance, human resources, technology and external affairs,” the spokesman said.
