Representatives of 11 trade unions operating at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih met with CEO Mauro Longobardo and HR director Yuliya Chermazovich to discuss the planned salary raise, coming into effect on May 1.
CFO Sergey Plichko and Chief Legal, GR and PR officer Artem Filipyev also participated in the talks.
“We fully share the unions’ desire to ensure that our employees are paid fairly. This is why we, together with Hay Group specialists, conducted a thorough analysis of compensation in the mining and steel industry, and reviewed the wages we pay. None of our employee will be paid below the market,” said Mauro Longobardo.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih average monthly salary exceeds the average wages in Ukraine by 64%. It is also 10% higher than the industry average. More than 4,000 employees, or 23% of the company’s workforce, received salary raises over the past two years.
To cover the upcoming raise and to pay out annual bonuses to all employees this March, the company will spend over UAH 700 million, or the equivalent of the net profit the company posted in 2020.
Despite the pandemic of COVID-19, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has fully met its collective agreement obligations. In particular, the company paid out UAH 4,500.8 million as employee compensation, invested UAH 424.8 million in the social development, UAH 308.7 million in safety programs and UAH 8.4 million in employer training. In addition, the company spent UAH 16.5 million on COVID-19 prevention, including free testing for employees.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih invested a great deal of effort to retain its team in full. While unemployment in Ukraine grew by 53%, the company cut its staff losses by a half. Overall, the duration of unpaid leave increased by 100% and the government Employment Centers saw nearly twice as many applicants as a year prior. At the same time, while decommissioning obsolete shops, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih redeployed 400 employees and only 30 people chose to leave the company.
“Not a lot of manufacturing companies in Ukraine are committed to this kind of open and honest dialogue with employees that we practice here,” said Yuliya Chermazovich. “It’s important for people to understand the real situation in the company, the industry and the economy, to be aware of the enormous investments required to modernize our production facilities, improve the environment and working conditions. Most importantly, we want the people to know how much we value each member of our team and how fiercely we fight to preserve each single job, especially during the pandemic and the economic downturn.”
The company extends the offer to the unions to revisit this dialogue after Hay Group publishes an updated salary review in the middle of the year. (AMKR/Ukrainian metal)