$20 a day care at the heart of efforts to bring women into the workforce

Diversified resources company Mineral Resources Limited (MinRes) is keen to attract more women to its workforce, undertaking a variety of initiatives such as starting its own airline, and offering $20 a day early childhood education and care (ECEC) to ensure employment with MinRes is more accessible. 

CEO Chris Ellison revealed the plans during the 2024 Macquarie Australia Conference, the largest annual gathering of Australian companies with domestic and international institutional investors, describing the ‘daily chore’ of trying to keep a strong dynamic culture running through the multi-commodity business, which has extensive operations in lithium, iron ore, energy, and mining services across Western Australia.

MinRes employs more than 8000 people and is on a major recruitment drive to bump that up to 10,000 by the end of the year. Its Osborne Park hub is well established, with construction currently underway for ‘resort style accommodation’ at Onslow (pictured) in a bid to attract couples to the fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) life, and create a more appealing and safe working environment for women. 

Mr Ellison hipes the $20 a day ECEC service will be one of the many things which helps MinRes to be successful in a tight labour market in WA. 

“I’m building a daycare centre so, ladies, if you want to come and work for me, 20 bucks a day for your kids, we’re going to be able to accommodate about 140 kids, so all our workforce.”

Mr Ellison hopes that the Onslow iron workforce will grow to be “about 40 per cent female” a target he suggested was tracking well, with “people lined up around the block” to work on the project.

Onslow is due to ship the first ore in June and will deliver about 35 million tonnes a year at full capacity.

Mr Ellison’s remarks were quoted in The Nightly. Access them here.