THE federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency has named 76 organisations in its inaugural WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation, including feature firm at the upcoming Australian Women in Resources Alliance (AWRA) Forum, St Barbara Limited.

The citation, also awarded to resource sector employers Shell Australia, Alcoa, ConocoPhillips and Origin Energy recognises employer efforts to improve gender diversity through workplace initiatives and strategies, and gives significant consideration to pay equity matters.

Helping to place St Barbara on the WGEA list of employers of choice is Katie-Jeyn Romeyn, the gold producer’s own pay equity expert who successfully reduced the pay gap between its male and female employees from 43% in 2007 to 11.4% in 2014.

Ms Romeyn will deliver a keynote address at the resource industry’s premier diversity event, the AWRA Forum, taking place in Perth tomorrow. Offering insight from a vast pool of knowledge and experience, Ms Romeyn will share how St Barbara’s gender diversity strategy has made the company an award winner in women’s participation.

Also in the forum’s outstanding line-up is Deloitte diversity executive Juliet Bourke, and Iluka Resources Stuart Forrester, both offering a wealth of expertise on the benefits of improving gender diversity in the mining, oil and gas sectors.

As a special addition to the program, leading Indigenous employers Fortescue Metals Group, Morris Corporation and Leighton Contractors will feature on the Indigenous Panel, talking community engagement and workplace initiatives to ‘close the gap’ on Indigenous employment.

Delegates will also be able to join the debate about workplace flexibility when representatives from Georgiou Group, Diversity Network, Australian Indigenous Women in Mining and more share their arguments for and against the notion that on-site flexibility is not possible in the resource industry.

The AWRA Forum is one event resource employers won’t want to miss. Click here to register.