MMK’s trade union protects workers

11 January 2009 (09:01)

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) trade union committee designed a set of measures aimed at additional social protection of the company’s employees.

According to the committee’s Chairman Alexander Derunov, the collective agreement signed by the plant’s management and the trade union and employed in 2006-2008 has been renewed for the year 2009 as well. The important thing is that this agreement provides for a whole range of socially important provisos.

For one, the benefits package the metallurgists get under this agreement has remained the same. At the same time, some of the addenda to the agreement (related to incidental bonuses for useful inventions, for example) were put off by one year. Nevertheless, the workers’ regular wages would be paid in full, depending on the amount of goods produced. The enterprise isn’t struggling with any arrears of wages, while MMK’s trade union is acting in accordance with the Labor Code and the collective agreement, the spokesperson for the company reports.

Special efforts are made to improve on the employees’ working conditions, that is, the changing rooms and the showers are getting refurnished and the cafeterias are improved upon. Then, a special benefits package has been adopted for MMK workers and their families: they can now go on day trips around Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk Regions. The trips are fully covered by the enterprise’s trade union funds. Over 1,500 people have used this opportunity since October 2008. Then, the trade union also provides for short trips to the countryside and covers the cost of the sports equipment rented there. What is more, the price of a ticket to Metallurg health resort in Essentuki has recently been decreased and the company’s employees and the workers of MMK’s daughter enterprises can even spend a couple of weeks there free of charge or at half-price, respectively, during the first quarter of 2009.

Alexander Derunov believes the trade union has to remind both the workers and the management about the corporate and family values, give the company’s employees a chance to lead more creative and healthier lives, and provide them with good recreation conditions.


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