BHP set to swing the axe on Australian jobs as part of global restructure

BHP is wielding the axe on jobs across its Australian operations, although the scale of the headcount reduction is unclear.

The nation’s largest listed company — has kicked off the process to make Australian workers in its planning and technical division, as well as the health, safety and environment division, redundant.

It is understood workers from those two standalone divisions will now be embedded into BHP’s individual asset arms — such as WA iron ore or Copper South Australia — for greater efficiency.

Specific details of the job losses were not disclosed, but BHP staff have been informed of the changes over the past 24 hours as the Big Australian looks to streamline its business globally.

A BHP spokesman confirmed the restructuring to The West Australian, but potential job losses were not disclosed.

“As part of our continuous improvement in how we approach our work, we have made some changes to better align work activities within assets and support quicker decision making,” he said.

The miner has more than 80,000 employees and contractors on its books globally, the majority in Australia.

Its WA iron ore business arm is believed to have over 15,000 employees alone.

The job cuts are separate from the thousands of WA mining jobs on the line as BHP mulls the closure of its nickel operations amid a poor price outlook for the future-facing metal.

BHP’s Nickel West employs around 3300 people — the vast majority in WA — whose livelihoods now hang by a thread as a glut of cheap nickel from Indonesia heaps pressure on the commodity’s price.

Earlier this month, when BHP handed down its half-year results, chief executive Mike Henry said a decision would be made on the fate of the nickel workforce within “months, not years”.

Mr Henry also took aim at wage inflation in Australia and the country’s industrial relations policies.

BHP is the largest company in Australia by market capitalisation, trading at a value of $223 billion.