Reported Offshore Headcount
2,090+
reported 30 Jun 2023, GCC Business Case for Australian MNCs — Inductus (confirms Macquarie, ...
Estimated % of Workforce
~3.9%
illustrative, not directly reported by the company
Destination Countries
Rio Tinto GBS: 48% of work outsourced (2014 Deloitte presentation by Head of GBS). Covers Finance, HR, IS&T, Procurement, Facilities. 1,183 direct employees in India at DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon. Partners with Accenture (cloud), Infosys BPM, CPA Global (legal outsourcing). 730M transactions/year, 84 payroll runs/month across 7 countries.
Financial Context
Market Cap
$45.0B
Revenue
$53.6B
Net Profit
$11.8B
Estimated Wage Differential
~$178M/yr
CEO: Simon Trott
$19,065,000
244x avg Australian worker
Illustrative wage differential: if the 2,090+ reported offshore roles were instead employed in Australia at average local rates, the additional cost could be in the order of ~$178M/yr (~1.5% of reported net profit). This is an estimate based on industry averages, not company-specific data.
Would this company be profitable without offshoring?
Every dollar paid offshore leaves the Australian economy, reducing local wages, tax receipts, and economic circulation. Why it matters
Financial data: FY2024. Estimate uses avg AU employment cost of $110,000+/yr (incl. super and on-costs) vs offshore $25,000/yr (salary + on-costs). Actual figures vary by role, seniority, and location.
In Plain English
- In 2023, Rio Tinto was reported to have 2,090+ offshore contractors and staff.
- This represents ~3.9% when compared to its current workforce of 53,000 (illustrative comparison only, not directly reported by the company).
- 🇮🇳 800+ staff reported in India in Back Office.
- Known outsourcing partners include Deloitte, PwC, IBM, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services.
Based on data from public sources at the dates reported. Figures may not reflect current headcount. See sources below for full attribution.
The Story
- 2024Annual report shows 1,183 direct employees in India across multiple entities at DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon. Infosys BPM provides business process outsourcing services. [Infosys BPM]
- 2019Rio Tinto set up a data analytics centre in Pune, India, focused on automation, AI, and data science for mining operations. [iTnews]
- 2015Rio Tinto partnered with Accenture to move to a cloud-based as-a-service model. [Accenture Newsroom]
- 2014Rio Tinto's Head of Global Business Services (GBS) Scott Singer confirmed at a Deloitte conference that 48% of GBS work is outsourced. GBS covers Finance, HR, IS&T, Procurement, and Facilities, processing 730 million transactions per year across 74,804 SAP users. [Deloitte conference presentation]
- 2014Rio Tinto outsourced its IT back office to IBM under a managed services deal, consolidating support functions across multiple countries. [iTnews]
- 2009Rio Tinto signed a legal services outsourcing deal with CPA Global, moving legal process work offshore. [Business Standard]
All facts sourced from public reporting. No editorial commentary. Click source links to verify.
Department Breakdown
| Department | Country | Headcount | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back Office | 🇮🇳 India | 800 | Estimated |
Consultancy Engagements
| Vendor | Type | Contract Value | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deloitte | Consulting | — | Confirmed |
| PwC | Consulting | — | Confirmed |
| IBM | Managed Services | $100M $100M over a decade. HR, finance, IT, procurement back office. Work in India, Europe, South America. | Confirmed |
| Infosys | Outsourced Dev | — | Confirmed |
| Tata Consultancy Services | Outsourced Dev | — | Confirmed |
Other Mining Companies That Offshore
Other companies in mining with reported offshore operations.
What Public Sources Say
All information below is sourced from publicly available documents and reporting. Excerpts are direct quotes. Click source links to verify.
“Rio Tinto signed a global outsourcing deal with IBM affecting up to 800 back office employees. Deal could span a decade and be worth up to $100 million. Work divided between IBM operations in India, Europe and South America. Rio Tinto also outsourced application development to Infosys, and was looking to farm out considerably more work to Infosys and TCS.”
Additional Sources
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This list is not complete, and never will be
If a company isn't listed here, that doesn't mean it doesn't offshore. And every number is the lowest we can prove, so the real figures can often be higher.
Read whyShow less
This list is not complete, and never will be
If a company isn't listed here, that doesn't mean it doesn't offshore. And every number is the lowest we can prove, so the real figures can often be higher.
This started as an ASX 200 project and mostly still is. It has widened as stories landed from outside that list, so it now also covers employers that aren't ASX-listed, like Canva, Allianz Australia, SS&C and Crown Resorts, along with government departments and agencies. Companies get added when something surfaces about them, not by working through a list in order.
Australian companies are under no obligation to disclose where their work is done, and there is no register of offshored jobs. Everything here comes from something that surfaced publicly: an annual report, a modern slavery statement, a news article, a union statement, a government contract, or a tip from someone who was there.
So an absence usually means nobody has reported on that company and we haven't got to it yet, not that it keeps its work onshore. Some of the biggest offshorers say nothing at all. And because each figure counts only what a source actually stated, the real numbers can often run higher, sometimes much higher.
Every figure links to the source it came from, so you can judge it yourself rather than take our word for it. If you know something that is missing or wrong, tell us. Corrections are published, not quietly buried.
This profile reflects public information at the time of publication and may not match current operations. Is something wrong or missing about Rio Tinto? Submit a correction. We welcome input from companies, employees, and researchers.