In 2002, Norilsk Nickel devised and successfully put into action three new social programmes as part of its policy of ensuring the steady development of its enterprises and creating a system of extra social guarantees on the basis of responsible mutual relations between the workforce and the employer. These programmes are the Training Programme, the Working Shift Programme, and the Joint Corporate Pension Programme.
The Training Programme is designed to deal with the selection, training and subsequent recruitment into the company's various subsidiaries and departments of young specialists up to the age of 28. As of October 2002, 110 graduates from higher and middle professional educational institutions have undergone training under the guidance of tutors at the company's enterprises. The enterprises in question operate in the fields of mining, enrichment, metallurgical production and energy and transport, as well as in the automation of production processes, the construction business and information technology.
The Working Shift Programme is designed to cater for the professional training and subsequent recruitment by the company's subsidiaries and departments of young workers up to the age of 26. The number of participants who have taken part in this programme has reached 250.
A competition was announced for the 400 places (lasting between 6 and 12 months) for trainees and specialists in the Norilsk Industrial Region. The competition commissions set up in the company's many subdivisions received 1,590 applications from those wishing to take part in the Working Shift Programme, and 341 from those keen to participate in the Training Programme. There were more than 6 applicants for each available position provided by the Working Shift Programme, with the biggest demand at the Medny works, where there were 16 times the number of applicants than places on offer. In accordance with the results of the training provided, the trainees will be required to sit examinations or submit written reports.
As Olga Golodets, MMC Norilsk Nickel's Deputy General Director of Personnel and Social Issues has observed - "This new approach to the company's development is based not only on new technology, but also on the high level of professionalism of its personnel, be they workers, engineers or managers. The professionalism of the Norilsk Nickel team is borne out by its achievements, and the level of professionalism of the company's personnel in the future will be determined by precisely those young people who come to us today."
The Joint Corporate Pension Programme, which came into existence in December 2002, is designed to offer assistance to workers at MMC Norilsk Nickel's Zapolyarnii subsidiary who wish to relocate to a more climatically temperate region of Russia on having reached the end of their working days with the company. In essence, the nature of the programme is that 3 per cent of the worker's salary is paid into a private pension fund along with a significant contribution from the company itself. In the words of Olga Golodets - "This programme will attract the greatest investment of all from the company, with each person receiving around one million rubles".
In the first month and a half of the Joint Pension Programme, 23 Zapolyarnii workers have opted into the scheme, and it is expected that by the end of 2003 somewhere in the region of 9,000 future pensioners will have signed up.

Further Information

The company operates a wide range of social programmes, designed for different groups of workers.
The Six Pensions Programme was set up for the purpose of offering material assistance to those pensioners who wish to relocate from the Norilsk Industrial Zone to the "Mainland" (as the rest of Russia is known locally - the Norilsk area being isolated in terms of conventional transport links from the rest of the country). In accordance with this scheme, the company has, since its inception in March 1999, made monthly payments to retired former workers. The payments, which are the equivalent of six times the state pension, continue for a period of two years after the pensioner concerned leaves the Norilsk Industrial Zone. Since the programme came into operation, around 7,000 pensioners have received material assistance, with the total payments made being somewhere in the region of 330 million rubles.
Under the Lifelong Professional Pension Programme the company offers its workers the opportunity of receiving a pension in addition to the state pension. In 2001 - 2002, the total number of workers signed up to this programme reached 1,043, with the average monthly payment reaching 3,800 rubles by the end of 2002.
The Maternity Rights Programme has been in operation at the company's enterprises since 1998. In accordance with the terms of this programme, female workers with children under seven years of age are entitled to leave the company, take their children out of nursery (or other pre-school childcare facility), and receive a fixed monthly payment until their child reaches school age (in Russia, children begin school at the age of seven). Since its inception, 2,707 female workers at the company's various enterprises have taken advantage of this programme, and the average monthly payment made has reached 11,000 rubles.
The Moving to the Mainland Programme. Norilsk Nickel offers assistance to its workers and pensioners who wish to leave the Norilsk Industrial Region by means of financial compensation, helping deal with the red tape that is involved in such a move, and even obtaining airline tickets. Since the programme came into operation in 1997, nearly 10,000 of the company's workers and pensioners have resettled in more climatically temperate regions of Russia, with the company paying out financial compensation to the tune of 427.3 million rubles.
The Leaving the Far North Programme is designed for those who have come to the end of their working lives with the company, and who are giving up their existing housing in the region to leave for the "mainland". Under the scheme, the company offers a one-off payment, with the amount paid being determined by the individual worker's duration of employment and salary level. Compensation has been paid out to 10,170 persons since this particular programme came into operation.
The programmes and allowances listed above are part of the Collective Agreement, which MMC Norilsk Nickel signed up to for the period 2001 - 2004.
The total Norilsk Nickel's social expences amounted in 2002 to about 1.3 bln rubles.
The company firmly observes the fundamental principle declared by the Collective Agreement, and which lies at the heart of its production and technological development plan to the year 2015: "People are our greatest asset".

Copyright © 2002 JSC MMC "Norilsk nickel"