BHP cuts employee incentives after missing its performance goals, AFR reports

(Reuters) -BHP Group has notified tens of thousands of its workers across the globe that it was cutting their incentive pay after the miner failed to meet its performance goals, the Australian Financial Review reported on Thursday.

The world's largest listed miner will only pay 80% of short-term incentives that were on offer in 2023-24, the AFR reported, citing BHP's employees.

"The docking of incentives has upset some BHP employees who contacted the Australian Financial Review pointing to hiring freezes in some divisions that impacted the ability to hit targets and what they see as unrealistic internal goals," the report said.

These incentives apply to all of BHP's workers and can add up to about 15% of their salaries, according to the report.

The company's leadership cited misses on cost and production targets across some of its divisions, as well as the death of a worker at its Saraji coal mine in Queensland in January as the reason behind the incentive cuts, the AFR reported.

Moreover, workers at BHP's Queensland coal division will receive only 70% of their incentives, the report added, following two production forecast downgrades and the fatality.

This incentive cut comes at a time when Australia's Mining and Energy Union has filed for "same job same pay" orders covering labour-hire workers at BHP's Queensland coal mines, which, if successful, would further weigh on its expenses.

The miner reported in February that its first-half profit was hit by an impairment charge worth $2.5 billion related to its Western Australia nickel business. It also said some global corporate teams were being disbanded in an effort to cut costs.

The company has also failed to meet its target of 3% year-on-year growth in the number of female employees to meet its goal of gender balance by 2025, according to the AFR.

However, BHP said in February it became the first miner in Chile to cross 40% female representation, more than doubling the national industry average.

BHP did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Anil D'Silva)