An Aussie billionaire mining boss has copped criticism after he revealed he wants to keep workers “captive all day” and doesn’t even want them to leave the building for a cup of coffee. Mineral Resources managing director Chris Ellison made the divisive claims during a financial results presentation this week.

Ellison, who has banned working from home, said the company’s head office in Perth introduced “a lot of different benefits” to keep staff “glued” in the office. HR expert Lara Nercessian told Yahoo Finance that Ellison’s comments weren’t promoting the right kind of workplace culture and behaviours.

“I get them first thing in the morning, I want to hold them captive all day long. I don't want them leaving the building,” Ellison said.

"I don't want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that costs, wandering out around lunchtime.”

Some changes designed to keep people on site include a restaurant and cafe, a fitness centre and a $ 20-a-day childcare centre for staff to “drop their little tykes off next door”.

Nercessian warned work perks were not enough.

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“If you want to remain competitive in the employer market, then I think that there needs to be a level of maturity and trust with your employees,” she said.

“I think that if there are performance issues, they need to be dealt with separately. I see this play out quite a bit where people do tend to tangle up ways of working with performance.”

During the presentation, Ellison, who made $6 million last year, said employees leaving the office cost the mining firm too much money.

Mineral Resources employs about 5,600 people and introduced a “no-work-from-home policy” last year.

“I wish everyone else would get on board with that – the sooner the better. The industry can’t afford it,” Ellison said.

He noted the company was concerned about the health and wellbeing of its people and had employed nine psychologists.

Comments spark backlash from Aussies

Prominent Australian social commentator and writer Jane Caro criticised Ellison’s comments and said she was glad she didn’t work for him.

“Ah, the sweet fulfilment of slaving away making obscenely rich people even richer, while being forbidden to leave the premises,” she wrote on X.

Other Aussies agreed and said there was no way they would work for a company that applied such strict rules on workers.